


My Alchemical Romance

by AbnormalAlley



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:09:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 83,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28909113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbnormalAlley/pseuds/AbnormalAlley
Summary: Originally posted on Quizilla years ago, then rewritten and posted here. Now nearly 15 years later I'm going a final rewrite, and finishing it! Alison Rigby is an average teenager, until she finds herself in Amestris with the Elric brothers.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

A/N: If anyone wants to the previous version, just let me know and I don't mind sending a copy.

Friday! It was Friday, it was fall, and it was finally the perfect weather for one of her favorite fall activities. Two best friends, camping in the backyard, and staying up all night talking under the stars.

Alison Rigby was by most standards, an average teenager. It was 2005 and she'd just turned 16, and finally able to drive a car on her own. She was a little on the short side, just barely passing 5 foot. She was fit, having been athletic from a young age. She had long brown hair, brown eyes, and naturally lightly tanned skin. She came from an average family. She lived with both of her parents and older brother. She lived in a small town in the southern U.S.

Alison threw her WWII army bag in her trunk. It'd been given to her by her maternal grandfather. She'd loaded it up with everything she'd need for the night; a blanket to lay out of the grass on, sleeping bag, spare clothes, her digital camera, mp3 player, a portable speaker, cell phone, earbuds, their respective chargers, and a few hygiene items. Often times the two friends would run an extension cord to their tent and watch movies on a laptop or play some music. Usually they'd just end up talking all night under the stars.

Her friend, Amber, had been her friend for years; the two were practically inseparable. An adorable red head with a fiery and bold personality. She was always there when Alison needed a friend to talk to, or when she just needed someone to tell her the truth, even if she didn't want to hear it. Their "camping trips" were a favorite past time, and occasionally Amber's mother would pick up some sweet wine, and occasionally some harder liquor, as long as they stayed in the back yard and didn't get crazy.

Alison drove down the backroads to Amber's house, maybe a little too fast. She tended to drive a little faster than what was recommended. She was blaring her music about as loud as her ears and car speakers could handle, singing along as loud as she could.

While traveling down one of the less travelled back roads, her rear left tire blew.

"Shit!" She shouted and brought the car under control and to the side of the road.

After turning the music down she got out of her car to inspect the tire. She guessed she must've hit a sharp piece of metal or something that blended into the rest of the gravel on the road.

"Dammit…" She muttered.

She popped the trunk and threw her bag over her shoulder, the strap across her chest. She didn't want to sit it in ant hill or on the dirt. After getting the bag out of the way she went for the spare under the trunk floor.

In the next few moments, she experienced some of the worst pain she had ever felt in her life. It felt like razors dipped in lemon juice sliced into her skin. She let out a howl of pain and reached to touch her back. Had a colony of bullet ants found their way into her bag? What could be causing this horrific pain? Her entire body began to feel like it was covered in acid and like her innards were on fire. She fell to her knees, clutching to the bumper of the car. She couldn't even register the pain of her head hitting gravel as her body collapsed on the road. She struggled to stay conscious despite the pain while her body convulsed on the gravel road. The road that anyone hardly drove down. How long before someone would find her? Was she going to die? These thoughts buzzed loudly in her head before fading out with her vision as she lost the fight to stay conscious.

"Hey…are you okay? Hey…wake up."

Alison heard a voice through the haze. She fought to pull herself out of the fog. With much effort she opened her eyes and made them focus. Above her she saw a forest canopy with a clear blue sky peering through.

"You okay?" The voice said again, in her left ear.

Her eyes darted toward the voice and saw a blonde young man crouched over her. She jerked back as fast as she could and scrambled to her feet. She felt like she'd been hit by a truck, but she tried her best to ignore it. She scrambled to put distance between her and the stranger and looked at her surroundings. She was in the middle of a forest…not the road she last found herself on.

"Who are you? What did you do to me, you pervert?!" She yelled at the man.

"Hey, who are you calling a pervert?!" He yelled back. He was a young man, possibly the same age as her own, with long blond hair in a braid, wearing black pants, shirt, and a long red coat. If she wasn't so panicked, she would have even called him handsome.

"Did you find me on the road and drag me to the woods?!"

"Hey, look…" He said and took a step closer.

"Don't come any closer!" She looked around quickly and grabbed a large, thick stick near her feet. She held it like a baseball bat and stood defensively. The blond stopped, took a step back, and put his hands up.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He said calmly.

She stared him down hard for a solid ten seconds, listening to her surroundings and weighing her options. She suddenly dropped the stick and booked it as fast as she could through the woods. She clung to her bag which she hadn't quite registered was still on her back, as she ran towards what she believed may be town if she'd heard right. Then again, sounds could have echoed and she was going deeper into the woods.

She wasn't quite sure where in her small town she was. The buildings she saw didn't look familiar as she approached them from behind. She ran through an alley and came to a road. She looked around and began to panic more. This was not her home town. This wasn't even any of the surrounding towns. She had no idea where she was. She staggered back against a brick wall and tried to breathe. After a few moments she started walking down the sidewalk. It would probably be best to keep moving in case the pervert guy was following her.

She hustled down the sidewalk, trying to keep her head straight but god dammit if it didn't feel like things were starting to spin. The people she walked by looked at her strangely and moved out of her way as she staggered through. They were wearing strange clothes. And the vehicles on the street…they weren't right. They were old. Alison spotted a man in a uniform that looked to be law enforcement.

"Sir! Sir, please help me!" She cried out and grabbed the man's arm. He looked startled and looked her up and down.

"What's the matter, Miss?" He asked.

"I don't know where I am! I woke up in the woods and there was this pervert guy, and everything is different and you have to help me, please!" Her words came out in one big ramble.

"Now, calm down." He said.

"You don't understand! I blew a tire, and then there was this pain, and I blacked out! I'm nowhere near where I was before I woke up and everyone is dressed strange, and the cars are old and-"

"Okay, okay…" He said with a huff. Did he just roll his eyes? "Another drunk kid." He mumbled and brushed her hands off of him.

"I'm not drunk! I'm stone cold sober!" She yelled.

"Ma'am, just come with me and will let you sleep this off at the station." He grabbed her arm.

"I said I'm not drunk! Let go of me!" She shouted as she tried to yank her arms away.

It was then that she saw the young man from before, accompanied by a young woman, and someone inexplicably wearing large armor. All of this just kept getting weirder.

"That's him! That's the pervert!" She exclaimed and pointed at him. The officer, without letting go of her arm looked at the man.

"It's you!" The blonde man yelled and pointed at the brunette girl.

"And now you're accusing a State Alchemist? Do you understand how much trouble you keep digging for yourself?" The officer scolded. What the fuck was a State Alchemist?

"Pervert? Brother, what did you do?" The one in armor spoke to the blonde man. His voice was surprisingly young sounding for someone of such large stature.

"I didn't do anything!" The young man yelled at the armor.

"I apologize Mr. Fullmetal, sir. I'm taking her away as we speak." The officer apologized.

"No!" The one addressed as Fullmetal interjected. The officer gave him a strange look. "She…we actually need to question her about some things…regarding…alchemy…." He managed to say. The officer stared for a few more moments and shrugged.

"Less work for me." He said and released her arm. He turned and went about his business down the street.

The young woman watched the officer walk away before turning to the trio before her. She stared at them before her eyes darted nervously toward the road, then back to them.

"Don't-" Fullmetal warned.

"Ever played Frogger?" Alison asked suddenly.

"Have I ever played what?"

Before Fullmetal could get an answer to that strange question she darted across the street, being narrowly missed by passing cars. She was pretty sure she heard him call after her but she just kept running.

"Ed! What are you doing?!" Winry yelled after Edward as he ran after the mysterious girl. She let out an annoyed sigh. "It's like Peninya all over again."

"Did she take his watch too?" Alphonse questioned.

Alison ran through alley ways, not sure which direction she was going, and hoping anyone following her wouldn't know either. She found a fire escape and climbed it. She looked around and saw a red coat flash by one of the alleys. She cursed and looked for her next move.

"Teenage agility, don't fail me now." She took a deep breath and ran across the roof and leapt over the gap and to the next building.

She landed a little roughly but kept running. Her next jump her foot landed on the brick edge. It gave way and crumbled under her foot. She fell forward onto the roof. She spit out the blood that was collecting in her mouth. She must've busted her lip. She dragged herself to her feet and started to look for a place to hide. Her energy was waning, and fast. There looked to be a large structure on the east end of the roof. She staggered over to the area, realizing she may have hurt her ankle on that last jump. She hid behind it and collapsed. Once she felt the energy leave her body her chest started to heave, and she began to cry harder than she had in a long time.

Edward came across a pile of broken bricks and dust on the ground. It looked to be recent, or the dust would probably be more scattered around or gone all together. He looked up to find part of the brick edge of the roof missing. She'd come this way. He went to the corner end of the building to find a fire escape. He climbed the ladder and looked around.

While scanning the rooftop he noticed a blood splatter that looked fairly fresh. He listened for a moment and could hear sniffling and heavy sobbing. He approached the structure on the roof and peered around the corner to find the young woman sitting against the wall and crying with her face buried in the large bag she had with her.

"Hey…" He spoke gently. He startled her and she scrambled to back away. "Please! Don't run! I'm not going to hurt you!" He urged.

"Then why do you keep running after me?!" She choked out.

"I…I just…" He wasn't quite sure. "You looked hurt…and lost. I just…wanted to help you." Slowly, while maintaining eye contact, he sat down with his back against the structure's wall.

"You sure are going through a lot of trouble to help me." She sounded untrusting.

"My name is Edward Elric." He said calmly.

He hoped if he remained calm it might help her calm down herself. He held out his left hand for her to shake. She looked at his hand for a while, like it might bite, before slowly shaking his hand. He wore white gloves. What an odd fashion choice, she thought.

"Alison. Um…Alison Rigby." She replied quietly.

"You have a strange accent. Where are you from?"

"Central Arkansas." She said quietly.

"Where is that?"

"...In Arkansas?"

"…Which is…?"

"…In the southern United State?" She said like it was obvious. He stared at her like he had no clue what she was even talking about. "Why are you trying so hard to help me?" She quickly changed the subject. Where she was from didn't matter right now. What mattered was where she was and who this guy was. He let out a sign and leaned back.

"I guess just trying to fulfill my good deed for the day."

"You often chase people down for a good deed?" She asked as she wiped her tear stained face. Her eyes felt swollen from crying and her cheeks burned from the tears. He chuckled.

"Nah…but I've gotten my hands pretty dirty before…so sometimes I try to go above and beyond good deeds." He said.

"That's not sketchy at all." She murmured in reply. "So, if you aren't a pervert, and aren't going to hurt me, then what were you doing in the woods? Why were you standing over me? Why am I not in my home town next to my car? That was the last thing I remember!" She sounded less trusting with each question.

"Hold on, now!" He put his hands up. "I just found you in the woods. I wasn't sure if you were dead or alive! I was just trying to help you." He explained. "As for anything that happened between what you last remember and when I found you…well, I'm just as lost as you are." He told her softly. He watched her face carefully as she looked at the ground and seemed to be trying to process something.

"Where am I?" She asked suddenly, almost hesitantly. He watched her silently for a few moments before replying.

"Frondt." He told her. Her eyes met his, and for the first time realized they were a stunning gold color. The setting sun behind her only seemed to make them shine brighter.

"…Where is Frondt? What country am I in?" Her voice was shaking.

"Amestris…" He wasn't sure where this was going, but he was starting to get the feeling that by trying to help this girl, he was getting himself into more than he'd anticipated.

"Amestris…is that a large country?" She gulped.

"It's…pretty big. It's one of the strongest in the continent. Why are you asking these questions? Do you not know where Amestris is?"

"I'm going to throw up." She stated and tossed her bag aside before she scurried to the side of the building. He could hear her starting to vomit until it turned into a dry heave.

"Are you okay?" He rushed to her side as her stomach emptied itself onto the pavement below and the side of the building.

"No…" She choked out. "I don't understand. I don't understand what's happening!" She cried out. "There's no way to explain this without sounding insane!"

"Just try." He spoke to her softly. A small voice inside of him pointed out he was being unusually patient with this girl. He shushed the voice and justified his actions by believing that the case with this girl was extremely interesting.

"Where I'm from…Amestris isn't a place." She said quietly. "Where I'm from…the clothes, the cars, the buildings, they're all different." Her words seemed to go right over his head. He shook his head and tried to think about what she'd just said.

"You said you passed out before you woke up in the forest. What happened before then?" He asked as calmly as he could. But she was right. She sounded insane.

"Um… Ok…" She tried to gather her thoughts. "I was driving to my friend's house. I got a flat tire. I got out to look at it. I went to get the spare, so I put my bag on my back, and went to get the spare and-" She stopped speaking for a moment and just left her mouth open, like she couldn't speak.

"What happened next?" He pushed. She blinked quickly as tears began to form in her eyes again.

"I…I felt this pain. It was worse than anything I've ever felt before. It started at my back and then it felt like my whole body was melting from the inside out. I couldn't breathe. I lost consciousness on the side of the road." She managed to choke out.

"You say it started with your back? Like the spine, skin, muscle?"

"The skin first. Like being sliced and burned at the same time."

"Do you mind if I look?" He asked.

She didn't say anything, but just gave a small nod. He felt her body go rigid as soon as he touched her. He stopped for a moment to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, then she felt him lift up the back of her shirt, at first just a little. He seemed to still himself before lifting it up a little further.

"Did you…did you have any markings on your back before?" His voice was shaking slightly.

"A few freckles, but that's it." She replied.

"Are you absolutely sure?" His voice was starting to shake more. She didn't reply for a moment. She was afraid to.

"…Why?" Now her voice was shaking. He dropped her shirt and backed away enough to look at her. She didn't look like she was lying.

"Do you know what alchemy is?" He asked.

"I mean…not really. I've heard of it but it died out centuries ago." A strange emotion crossed his face that she couldn't quite read. Concern? Confusion?

"Do you know anything about human transmutation or the philosopher's stone?" He said in a rough whisper.

"Philosopher's stone? Like the thing in Harry Potter?" She looked at him, confused. What did Harry Potter have to do with any of this?

"I don't…I don't know who that is but I'm going to assume we're thinking of two different things, so no." At this point they were just confusing each other further.

"Whatever! Just, what is on my back that has you so freaked?!" She shook her hands in exasperation.

"There are markings. Like a tattoo." Her face visibly paled when he told her. Her hand flew to her back to try and touch the area.

"Wha- how? I don't…" She stammered. "Of what?" She finally managed to squeak out.

"It's an alchemical symbol. It looks…like it's for human transmutation, but it looks different." He explained, trying to calm his own voice. It wouldn't do any good for them both to start freaking out.

"What does that even mean?" She asked him as if she was pleading for him to make any of this make sense. He hated that he couldn't do that for her.

"Please, come back with me. My brother, a friend of ours, and I are staying at a little Inn in town. My brother and I are practically experts in the field of alchemy, and my friend had medical training. We can help you." He promised.

She stared into his golden eyes before biting her lip and nodding. What choice did she have? He helped her to her feet, noticing that she winced when she put weight on her left ankle, he grabbed her bag for her, and led her down the fire escape and through the streets to where he was staying.


	2. Chapter 2

Under the deep recesses of Central City, Father sat on his throne. He slowly opened his eyes and the slightest of smiles turned up his lips.

"The princess…she's finally back. Just in time!" He bellowed.

"Are you sure, Father?" The one known as Lust asked.

"I can feel her presence in this country. It's unmistakable."

"Wonderful!" The one known as Envy clapped his hands together. "How would you like her delivered? Hog tied? Good ole gag and drag? Or as just a corpse?" He asked Father.

"No! She must remain alive! I need her alive to absorb her power! Now go! Bring the princess and whatever body she is inhabiting this time, to me!" He commanded.

"Yes, Father." Lust said with a nod.

* * *

Alison stared at the door entrance of the Inn. Everything she'd learned about serial killers said _never go to a second location alone._ And yet, here she was. About to go to a second location. Alone. With a stranger.

"Are you coming?" Edward asked as he held the door open.

Alison pulled her jacket closer around her as a breeze swept over her. She sighed and walked through the door. She might as well die the way she lived; learning too much about serial killers. She followed him up a flight of stairs and down a hallway where he stopped in front of a door.

"I should probably tell you," He started. "My brother, you saw him before, he's in a suit of armor. It's kind of a long story. And our friend Winry, don't get scared if she hits one of us with a wrench or something. She won't hit you with it, I promise. And really it doesn't even hurt that much, but don't tell her I said that or she'll start hitting harder." Edward gave a reassuring smile before turning to unlock the door.

Her heart was racing, paranoia regarding all the terrible things that could happen to her behind that door rushed through her mind. She tried to calm her breathing, but she was trembling again. Edward noticed, and for whatever reason that he couldn't find, he wished there was anything he could do to take away her anxiety.

He opened the door only to find the room empty.

"Guess they're still out somewhere. Pretty sure Al has been dying to have alone time with Winry, anyways." Edward thought aloud. Alison walked in behind him and stood in the doorway, obviously unsure and uncomfortable.

"The bathroom is over there if you want to freshen up. I can if I have any clothes that would fit you…though I feel you may be more comfortable in Winry's clothes. No way am I going through her things though." Edward chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

"It's ok. I have a few changes of clothes. I was going to a friend's house for the weekend before…all of _this_ happened." Alison replied.

He was right thought, her clothes felt dirty, she felt sweaty and gross. Her face was stained with dried tears and dust. A shower sounded amazing.

She stepped out of the shower at least feeling cleaner than before, though not any more relaxed about any of what was happening. As she dried herself and got dressed, she stopped to look at her back, for probably the tenth time, in the bathroom mirror. Edward was telling the truth. There was tattoo on her back, a black outlined circle with intricate lines and symbols. It didn't look fresh, nor did it look old and faded; it definitely had not been there that morning. No matter how long she stared at it, she just kept expecting the next time she looked it wouldn't be there.

When she stepped out of the bathroom, she stopped to find Edward, and presumably his brother and friend, standing together. It seemed she had interrupted an important conversation.

"Um…hi." She said meekly. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Alison, this is my brother, Alphonse," Edward side stepped the question and pointed to the large suit of armor. "And our childhood friend, Winry Rockbell." He pointed to a young blond woman, around the same age as herself.

"And his amazing mechanic!" Winry proclaimed while approaching Alison and extending a hand.

"Mechanic?" Alison questioned while shaking her hand.

"Yeah, I'm an automail engineer!"

"Wow, you're very young to be an engineer." Alison sounded impressed. "Um, what is automail?"

"Winry is also pretty skilled in medicine." Edward interrupted. "Winry, would you mind looking at her ankle?"

"Um…yeah, of course." She replied with a smile.

* * *

"It looks like you probably just have a mild sprain. I'll wrap it for you, also try to keep it elevated for a few days and don't put it further stress on it. Which means, try not to lead any chases on rooftops." Winry teased.

"So, he told you about that…" Alison said.

"Yeah, but only to explain what had happened. He took after you in quite a rush. We were pretty worried." She explained.

"Can I ask you something?" Alison asked. Winry nodded. "All of this," Alison made a hand motion to indicate the situation, "It's kind of weird, right?"

Winry bit her bottom lip and glance over at Edward and Alphonse who were whispering to each other at the other end of the room.

"Well," She looked back to Alison and lowered her voice. "It's a little strange. It's not unlike them to go out of their way to help people. But it is unlike Ed to bring a complete stranger like he's doing with, well…you." Winry scooted closer. "They rarely tell me anything about their research or much of anything else these days. What happened between you two that made him bring you back here with him?" she whispered.

"He, uh, said he was doing his good deed for the day." Alison responded. As strange as Edward reacted to the markings on her back, she decided she wasn't sure how many people she should let know about it.

"Alison," Edward cut through the conversation. He stood beside her with his brother towering over both of them. "There are a few things that we need to discuss." He said solemnly. Something told her this wouldn't be a necessarily happy conversation.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Winry boarded a separate train from Alison and the Elrics. She said she had to return to Rush Valley, wherever that was. Alison was traveling to Central City with the brothers, presumably in the center of the country.

The seats on the train were worn down from use, and not exactly comfortable. The brunette stared out the train window and watched the scenery go by. For the most part, it looked just like her world. It wasn't some bizarre world with green skies and purple grass. It almost looked like a version of her world, but about a century earlier. Ninety years, actually, according to the brothers. And of course, different laws of science existed too. She wasn't entirely convinced that the alchemy that they demonstrated for her wasn't just good ole fashioned witchcraft.

The ride wasn't as weird as she'd thought it'd be. She actually began to relax and laugh with the brothers some. They were amazed with her digital camera. She took their picture and showed it to them on the screen. The Elric brothers spent a good 20 minutes taking pictures of anything and everything and being amazed at the view on the screen. They were really amazed when she broke out her Razor cell phone, and her mp3 player. It was kind of adorable to see Ed's face light up when he heard the music come the small buds at the end of the wires.

The young woman followed the Elrics through the streets of Central. It really looked like she'd stepped back in time. They stopped in front of a large building, two long green flags on each side of the entrance with some kind of white dragon on the middle.

"These are some of the military dormitories." Edward explained. "We keep a place ready here for us."

She followed them up a couple of flights of stairs before entering their dorm. It was like a small apartment. It appeared to have two bedrooms across from each other, with a common area in between them. In the common room was a couch, chair, and coffee table. One side of the room had a bathroom, while the other had a small kitchenette. A large window in the common room let in a lot of natural light.

"Very few people know the real reason behind Al's armor." Edward said. "They all just assume he has a flesh and blood body and just stays in armor, so we keep a place with two bedrooms, so people are less likely to question things. Also, we'd like it if you kept our secret, well, a secret. It could be very dangerous for us if certain people found out."

Edward showed their new companion to her room and left her to get comfortable.

* * *

"So, you work for the military?" Alison questioned over dinner.

The three sat in the common area and ate take-out that reminded her of Chinese food. Ed called in Xingese, a cuisine from a country to the east called Xing.

"Yeah, I'm a State Alchemist. It's a military branch in our country for extremely talented alchemists. The military basically uses us like human weapons. But if I wanted access to the military's extensive alchemy library, one of us needed to join. We're both talented, but part of the acceptance process is a physical exam, so it had to be me." Ed shrugged it off, but Alison could sense how much he hated being part of the military. "It'll be worth it though, once we get our bodies back to normal. Right, Al?" He grinned and lightly tapped Al's chest plate.

"Right!" Al nodded optimistically.

* * *

Edward and Alphonse were gone usually from sun up to sun down, either in the military library, or working at headquarters. Edward said his commanding officer hade recently been transferred from East City to Central, so they'd probably be in the city often.

Alison decided to spend her time getting to know more about the new world she was in. She explored the city, spoke with the people that lived there, and spent a lot of time in the public library. She read history books, geography texts, and classic literature. She had no idea how long she'd be here, so she needed to get familiar with the world she was in. It would definitely throw up some red flags if she didn't even know basic information about the country she had to pretend to be a native of.

On this particular day, Alison was spending the afternoon in the library again. She'd been in the strange land for about 10 days now. Every morning she woke up with the hopes that she would wake up in her own world, and every morning those hopes were crushed.

It was almost time for the library to close. She'd already picked her selection of books to borrow, but she was wanting to finish a section in the history book she was reading at the time. After the library closed, she was to meet up with the Elric brothers in front of a particular restaurant. Ed had been dying to go there since they'd arrived in Central, but he'd been too swamped with work. Tonight, he knew he'd get off at a reasonable time and suggested the three go there for dinner.

Alison was fully engrossed in the history text she was reading. She knew if she was there past closing time, like she had before once or twice, the librarian would interrupt her studies and politely, yet sternly inform her it was closing time.

This time, it wasn't the librarian who interrupted her. A young man approached the table she was sitting at and sat down across from her. She glanced up to see a handsome young man with dark hair, green eyes, and olive skin. She ignored him. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Can I help you?" Alison asked, irritated, not looking up from her book.

"I've been watching you for awhile now, and I was thinking you should let me take you out to dinner." He said smoothly with a smile.

"First, that's creepy. Second, not interested."

The young man seemed caught off guard for a moment.

"A beautiful woman like you shouldn't be cooped up in a library all day. Come on. Let me take you out. Dinner and drinks, on me?" He flashed his best smile.

"So, because I'm attractive my intelligence has no value? Since I'm pretty I shouldn't bother educating myself? So, I should just, what? Sit outside and look pretty until a nice man like yourself takes an interest in me?" She sneered.

"What? No, that's not what I meant-"

"Again, I'm going to pass on your offer." She said, gathered her books, and stood up.

She took her books to the librarian's desk to complete her borrowing process. The librarian was a different woman than the usual mousey old lady she saw. This woman was attractive, with long black hair, pale skin, dark lipstick, and a full hourglass figure. Alison thought for a moment she'd make an awesome Morticia Adams. She took her books and put them in her bag and left the library, the young man, as well as a few stragglers, still in the library.

She still had some time to kill so she decided to spend it in a park across from the library and read.

* * *

"Your flirting skills are atrocious." Lust sneered at Envy as they stood in a dark alleyway. "I told you, you should leave the seduction to me."

"And how exactly do you even know she's into women, Lust?" Envy sniped. "And there was nothing wrong with my performance!"

"Oh, please. _Everyone_ is attracted to me. _Look_ at me." Lust gestured to her body.

" _Fine!_ " Envy snapped. "Next time, I'll try it your way." With sparks shooting around his body he transformed his appearance to match his busty accomplice's. He bent over, pressing his breasts together and shaking them back and forth. "Hi, I'm Lust, I've got big tits, do whatever I tell you and maybe I'll let you touch them!" Envy mocked.

"Why you…" She growled.

"She's coming!" Gluttony whined while sniffing the air. The fat sin began to drool.

* * *

Alison made her way through the streets of Central, on her way to the agreed meeting spot. She passed an alley way and heard someone call out to her.

"Excuse me, young lady!" It was the new librarian. She was standing in front of a vehicle with it's back hatch opened. "Would you mind helping me lift this box? It's far too heavy to life alone." She asked sweetly.

Now, Alison knew about Ted Bundy's methods of luring women. She'd also watch Silence of the Lambs. No fucking way was she going down there.

"Nah, my mom always warned me about stranger danger and dark places." Alison replied bluntly. "If you want, I can go find someone who can help you though."

"That would just take too long. It will only take a minute. Besides, we're not strangers! I checked you out in the library today." She smiled.

"What's my name?" Alison asked flatly.

"Um…I don't know."

"And I don't know yours. So," Alison pointed at herself, "Stranger," then at the woman. "Stranger. Stranger danger. And during this time you've been arguing with me I could have found someone else to help you by now."

"Alright, Envy, you win." She sneered and crossed her arms over her large chest. "I'm losing patience."

Alison didn't have much time to ponder how strange of a statement that was before a hand covered her mouth and she was forcefully shoved into the alley way. When she was far enough in, she was thrown to the ground. She scrambled to her feet to find the woman, along with two others with her, one being the young man from the library.

"Could have made this easier if you'd just come with me earlier." He grinned.

Sparks appeared, starting from the top of his head and gliding down his body, changing appearance as they went. Before her now stood a man with spikey green hair, black shorts, and a black crop top. Odd choice of clothing, but okay.

"Fucking shape shifter!" Alison exclaimed to herself. She was grabbed by the front of her shirt, spun around, and shoved up against a brick wall. Her head made hard contact with the brick. One of her assailants lifted the back of her shirt up.

"Perfect. Father will be very pleased." Lust grinned. "It's time you came with us, princess."

"Princess? Look lady, you must have me confused with someone else." Alison stammered out. "I'm no princess."

She was yanked away from the wall only to have a knee make contact with her gut. She collapsed to the ground and began coughing and trying to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her.

"Don't lie to us, brat. We've been on the look out for you for awhile now, and that tattoo doesn't lie." The green haired guy laughed. "We know exactly who you are."

"Good, then maybe you wouldn't mind explaining it to me, because I have no fucking clue what you're talking about." Alison rasped out.

Before she could get an explanation, if they even planned to give her one to begin with, she heard a loud yell, a bright light, and large spikes shoot up from the ground. They pierced her assailants multiple times. The green haired man merely broke the spike out of his chest by slamming his fist against it. The women's fingernails extended like daggers and sliced the rock like butter, while the fat man's saliva dripped down and disintegrated the rock. All of their wounds seemed to heal in just moments. Alison sat there, staring in confusion and horror.

Okay, this took the insanity cake of all the crazy shit that had happened over the past ten days.

In the next moments she saw a suit of armor charge past her and towards her assailants. They all dodged, and with lightning speed and agility, were up on the fire escape 20 feet in the air. Alison couldn't fathom how they'd gotten up there. _Especially_ the fat one! Edward's voice behind her pulled her out of her stupor. What had he just called her? Ali? He hadn't called her that before. And why her brain decided to cling to that small piece of information, she didn't know.

"I can't believe it!" The green haired man laughed. "The princess with the Fullmetal twerp and his tin can brother? This is too perfect! You literally couldn't have made things easier unless you just surrendered yourselves over!"

"I don't know who the princess they're talking about is." Alison told Edward.

"Of course you don't, you stupid girl!" The buxom woman snapped. "You're merely a vessel for a far more powerful purpose."

It was at this point they could hear people approaching, others having heard the ruckus. The Elrics and Alison glanced toward the road as other people approached, and when they turned back towards the assailants, they had vanished.

* * *

"I'm sorry, they're called _what_?" Alison asked while pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand, and holding and ice pack to her forehead with the other.

"Homunculus." Ed repeated. "We don't know much about them yet. We know the green haired one can shape shift, the woman has dagger like fingers that can extend and retract at will, and then the fat one that…well, can eat anything."

"Don't forget his acid saliva. That was fun to see." Alison groaned. "Well, good news is, I figured it all out. I'm in a real live game of dungeons and fucking, dragons."

"What's that?" Al asked.

"It's a table top role playing game."

"It sounds fun…" Alphonse said quietly. Alison wanted to shoot him a glare, but fast eye movement shot pain through her head.

"I'm going to have to start keeping a to-do list of shit to figure out. First all the other crap, and now this princess vessel issues, whatever the hell that's all about."

"Speaking of that…" Ed started. "The circle on your back, as I said before, is an older, earlier version of alchemy. There are theories between some historians that the alchemy that we know today originated in Xerxes, an ancient city whose citizens just seemed to disappear overnight." Ed explained.

"We've been doing some research in to this when we've had time." He continues. "And there's a story there about a princess who married a Xingese emperor. In the story, a few years after the marriage, she returned Xerxes to find her kingdom had vanished. Upon her return to Xing her envoy was attacked by a single person, all were slaughtered but her. She claimed that the one who slaughtered her envoy, cursed her. She would spend days and weeks at a time locked away in her chambers screaming and wailing about voices in her head, citizens from her old country."

"The thing is," Al continued, "there's nothing to back any of this up. It's all just a story. We couldn't find any other information to substantiate if it was true or just an urban legend."

"Neat." Alison grumbled.

She was caught in her own young adult adventure sci-fi novel. If they made a movie adaptation of her novel-prison, which celebrity would play her? She pondered this longer than she intended to, mostly because if she accepted this idea the brothers were proposing, she might actually have to admit that she was insane. Because that's what all of this was. Insanity.

"Look, I know this is all strange and new to you, but keep in mind, this is our lives every day." Edward snapped suddenly. It took her by surprise at first, he'd never talked to her that harshly before. "We've already has to fight those things once before, and they almost killed us. They're responsible for countless atrocities and honestly, I can't tell if the fact that we keep running in to them is purely coincidental because of our research, or if they're just not using us as some kind of puppets. And not knowing which and second guessing every move we make, it's maddening."

Alison closed her eyes and frowned.

"I'm sorry." She apologized softly. "I've been so wrapped up in how my own life has been turned upside down, I didn't even bother being just a little empathetic that you two have been going through all of this way longer than I have." She met Edward's golden eyes. "Make no mistake, I appreciate all that the two of you have done for me, I truly do. There's no telling where I'd be without your help. If it wasn't for the both of you, I'd be who knows where with those things from earlier. I owe you both a huge debt."

"It's no big deal, really." Ed said, suddenly feeling bad for snapping.

"It is though. And I hope to repay you both by helping you with your goal." She smiled softly. "After all, according to those things from earlier, I'm somehow linked to you two anyways. Might as well use that to our advantage."

The brothers shared a look and nodded in agreement.

"Um…I don't want to sound like a big baby," Alison spoke again, nervously. "But…I'm kind of worried about them coming back in our sleep." She tried to hide her anxiety with a sheepish grin, but it failed miserably. The brothers could see how the night's events had shaken her up pretty hard.

"We can all sleep together!" Al suggested enthusiastically.

"Uh…what?" She questioned.

"Remember, Ed? Like when we were kids?"

"Hey, yeah!" Ed now sounded excited. "I'll grab my mattress, help Ali get hers!"

There it was, that nickname again. No one else called her that. She decided to think nothing of it, it was just a nickname after all. Ed disappeared in the room he shared with Al, while you followed Al to your own room. Within a few minutes they'd pushed the living room furniture to the edges of the room and laid the mattresses out on the floor. A thick blanket was laid down to prevent Al's armor from scuffing the floor. Apparently, they'd been scolded for that before.

The three teenagers stayed up for hours, swapping stories and experiences. For at least a few hours, they were able to forget about the troubles of the day. It was late in the evening before Edward and Alison were barely able to keep their eyes open. The two fell asleep, while Alphonse let his mind rest in a deep meditation.

* * *

Images of the fat Homunculus hovering over her, begging for permission to eat her, the busty Homunculus extending her fingers to slice through her. Next, the green haired Homunculus appeared and began choking her with its bare hands. She scratched at the hands around her neck, struggling for air. Then it suddenly stopped, and she appeared in a white void with a large door.

In front of it was a strange, humanoid figure. It had no distinct physical traits, except it seemed to glow with a black outline, while its center was white. It grinned, showing large, white teeth. The door slowly creaked open behind the figure, revealing a black void. A gigantic eye opened in the void and stared at her. It seemed to stare into her very soul. Dozens of spindly black arms shot towards her like bullets.

Alison shot up in a cold sweat, clutching her chest and trying to catch her breath. She quickly looked around the room to see she was still in the living room with the Elric brothers. She let out a relieved sigh and ran her hand through her hair.

"Everything okay?" A groggy voice said from her side. She'd apparently woken Edward up from the mattress next to her own.

"Yeah…just a nightmare." She swallowed. "Hey…remember when you talked before about a Gate? What did it look like?" she asked as calmly as she could but her voice was shaking. She now had Ed's full attention.

"Well," He sat up. "It was huge. Like 40 feet tall or something. And it was like a golden color, with all these old alchemical symbols on it. And when it opened it was pitch black." He described.

"With a big eye and a bunch of arms coming out?" She asked.

"You saw it?" He asked with a frown.

She nodded. While that did help confirm the theory that she passed through the Gate from her world to theirs, he still felt a pain in his gut, knowing the horrifying feeling of standing before that door.

"I was dreaming about the homunculi and then suddenly I was in front of it. I woke up right as these creepy little hands were reaching for me." Alison explained.

"The part with the homunculi was just a dream," Ed reassured her. "But it's possible that the part about the Gate was part of a memory from when you passed through."

She wiped away tears that were forming around her eyes. It was all just so much. But she had to be strong and push on, she just had to.

"I'm sorry, I'm being a baby again." She sniffled. "I'm just…"

"Terrified." Ed finished. She nodded. "Al and I have both stood in front of that Gate. And we both lost something when we did. I really don't know how you came out without missing a limb or organ, but count yourself lucky that you did. But I know how terrifying that place is. So, believe me, I know how you feel right now." He offered a soft smile and place his flesh hand on her arm. She replied with a soft smile of her own and nodded.

"Thank you." She said and wiped her tears away again. She tried to chuckle and lighten the mood. "I'm not so sure I can go back to sleep now, even though I'm exhausted."

Ed seemed to ponder this a moment before laying back down on his mattress.

"Here." He reached his automail hand out to her. "Hold my automail hand." He instructed.

Alison seemed to stare at the metal limb for a moment, truly seeing it for the first time. From the tips of his fingers, to where it with connected to his torso, barely covered by the black tank top he slept in. She laid back down and placed her flesh and blood hand in the cold, metallic one. He closed his hand around hers and she could swear her heart jumped for a moment. She squeezed the hand back.

Edward smiled. "Sometimes, when I'm having nightmares, it helps to hold on to something hard, something that I can feel to keep me grounded in reality, so when I wake up, I know it was just a dream." He explains softly. His smile widened slightly when Alison smiled in response.

Before she knew it, she was fast asleep, and slept uninterrupted, without nightmares, until the morning.

* * *

Alison steered clear of the library for a few days, at least until she'd gotten all the information she could from the books she borrowed. When she returned, she looked for books on early alchemy and the legendary city of Xerxes, and on Xing. While exchanging her books, there was a new librarian. She regretted to inform Alison that the older woman who had been there before had been missing for a few days now, with no leads as to where she could be. But Alison knew. She knew it had been those monsters from before.

A few hours later Alison was in the dormitory, reading up on Xerxes. She sat on one end of the couch, while Ed sat on the other, and Alphonse sat in the chair. They were all busy reading different texts, and it was dead silent in the room. So, when a sharp knock came to the door it was a bit startling.

Ed put his book down and went answer the door. After looking through the peep hole he let out and exasperated sigh.

"Lt. Colonel Hughes, what's up?" Ed asked as he cracked the door.

"Hello to you too, Edward! Word has it you've been keeping a stow away. And a girl no less! One that isn't Miss Rockbell." Hughes winked. "You wouldn't be doing such a thing, now would you?"

"We can explain!" Hughes heard Al exclaim from inside the room and rush to the door.

"Dammit, Al." Ed grumbled. Al never liked lying to the Lt. Colonel. Ed sighed and opened the door further to allow Hughes in. "Alison, this is a friend of ours, Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes. Lt. Colonel, this is Alison Rigby. She has been a tremendous help with our research, she also has no where else to go. She's not exactly from around here, so she's been staying with us in exchange for her assistance."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Rigby. Why, anyone helping these boys, of course is a friend of mine." Hughes approached the brunette and shook her hand.

"Pleasure meeting you." She smiled politely.

"Well isn't she just lovely!" Hughes grinned. "I hope some of that nice personality will rub off on Ed! Kid throws a tantrum like a child if anyone calls him any of the 'S' words."

Edward clutched his fists and gritted his teeth.

"The 'S' words?" Alison asked.

"Ya know, short, small, shrimp. 'S' words."

"OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH!" Ed shouted.

Oh wow, the Lt. Colonel was right. He didn't seem to let Ed's outburst bother him.

"Anyway, I heard you boys were in the city and wanted to invite you to dinner tonight! Gracia is making that apple pie you like so much, Edward."

"Pie?" Ed seemed to immediately calm down.

"And of course, you're invited as well, Miss Rigby." Hughes smiled.

* * *

The Hughes family seemed absolutely perfect. Hughes, a loving, caring father and husband, with his beautiful and sweet wife Gracia. And of course, they're three-year old daughter, Elysia who was possibly the cutest thing on the planet. The family looked like they'd be on the cover of a magazine. And the food! Gracia was an amazing cook!

Ed was no dullard. He knew there was another reason for the invite, so he wasn't at all surprised when Hughes asked him to come to his study for a private conversation.

"So how exactly is she helping with your research?" Hughes questioned. His tone said he would call Ed out the first lie that came out of his mouth.

"It's a difficult situation to explain…" Edward replied.

"Try." Hughes demanded.

"Okay, so do you remember when Al and I told you about the Gate?" Ed began and sat across from the older man. "We only saw part of what was _in_ the gate. But what if there's something else, another world even, on the other _side_ of it?"

Hughes didn't respond for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"Are you saying she may have some theories about this 'other side'?" Hughes asked. The Elric brothers were not ones to go off chasing half brained theories, so this came as a surprise. Or maybe they'd hit so many dead ends, they were just grasping at straws.

"No." Ed stated. "I'm saying she's _from_ the other side."

Hughes just stared at him like he'd finally lost it.

"I know how it sounds! It took some convincing for us, too! But she has hard proof! Items, technology way beyond what we have here. And when she showed up, she had a tattoo on her back that hadn't been there before." Ed stood up and walked to Hughes' desk and started scribbling in a piece of paper. "These symbols. This is a human transmutation circle, but an ancient one. She has no idea where it came from. She remembers seeing the Gate!"

"Ed…" Hughes pinched the bridge of his nose. "You can't really believe this, can you?"

"I believe her. There is not a doubt in my mind, or Al's that she is telling anything but the truth." Ed stared him down. Hughes continued to pinch at his nose.

"You remember when I told you about the homunculi in Lab 5?" Ed asked. Hughes let go of his nose and met Ed's eyes. "They attacked her the other night. We went to meet up with her after we'd left HQ. Alison wasn't where she said she'd be, and she's been very careful about her directions since we've arrived in Central. We found them, surrounding her in a dark alley."

Ed sat back down. "When we intervened, the one known as Envy, the one who can change his appearance, he seemed elated that the three of us had found each other. He said we'd made things easier for them." Ed looked at Hughes with eyes pleading to be believed.

"Ed, how do you know she isn't on their side and tricking you?"

"I just…I just know." Ed replied simply. "You have to just trust me on this one, Hughes."

Hughes let out an irritated sigh.

"Fine. I'll trust you. But you have to tell Roy, or I will." Hughes said. Ed let out a groan.

"Come on, what does the Colonel need to know for?" Ed groans.

"He is your commanding officer and has helped you and your brother from the beginning. He's always kept your secrets before, he'll keep this one too." Hughes lectured. Ed slumped against his chair and groaned. "Ed, this is important, and if you want me to trust you on this, then you need to trust him!" Hughes scolded.

" _Fine._ " Ed grumbled. "I'll tell him tomorrow."

"Good. You're going to tell him first thing in the morning, 8A.M. sharp. And you're bringing her with you."

"She's been through enough already, now you want to put her through an interrogation?" Ed snapped.

"Don't let your feelings and a pair of big brown eyes cloud your judgement, Ed!"

The younger man was slightly taken back by that. He wasn't letting his feelings cloud anything! How dare he suggest that! He tried to ignore that the room started feeling warmer.

"If you want us to trust her intentions, she needs to explain them to the Colonel herself. I'll be waiting for you in front of his office in the morning. If I throw my trust behind you, Roy is more likely to, as well." Hughes left no room for argument.

Ed sighed and nodded. When he left the study, they pretended like nothing had happened. He'd wait until they got back to the dorms to tell his brother and Alison that she would have to tell Colonel Roy Mustang her predicament.


	4. Chapter 4

"So, you remember when you told me that if certain people found out about certain things it could be very dangerous?" Alison whispered to Edward.

They were walking down the long corridors of Amestris' Central Head Quarters, on their way to see Colonel Roy Mustang and tell him _everything_ about Alison and how or why she came to be stuck in this land.

"It'll be fine." Ed reassured. "Mustang knows about Al and I. At this point if it got out to the higher ups about us, he'd be in more trouble than we would for hiding it."

Alison took deep breaths and tried to keep her nerves under control. They reached the large oak doors where Maes was waiting for them.

"Just tell the truth." Ed whispered.

They entered a large room with multiple occupied desks. The occupants looked up to see who was entering. Maes smiled and greeted everyone cheerfully. Edward gave a simple wave, while Alison kept her eyes on Edward's back as she followed him to another large door. She felt everyone's eyes on her until she disappeared with the others behind the doors.

In the middle of the room were two couches facing each other, and in the back was a large desk, two chairs in front of it, and large windows behind it. In the chair behind the desk sat a man with dark hair clothed in the country's military uniform.

"Maes. Fullmetal. To what do I owe the pleasure, first thing in the morning?" The man behind the desk greeted the two men. His voice was deep and smooth. Alison had never quiet heard anything like it in person before. He eyed the young brunette behind Edward. "Are you going to introduce your guest, Fullmetal?"

From the moment he first spoke, Alison could tell there was just something about this man that got under Ed's skin. She wasn't quite sure what it was yet.

"Colonel," Ed grumbled out. "This is Alison Rigby. She…has been helping us with a new direction in our research."

"Oh?" Mustang tilted his head slightly and smirked. Okay, she saw it now. He was kind of a smug prick. "And how is that, exactly?"

Ed snarled and turned to Hughes. "You've already told him everything, haven't you?" He nearly growled.

"I may have made a call when you left last night." Hughes said casually.

"So, if you know everything I told Hughes, why are we here?" Ed snapped at Mustang.

"Because, I want to hear it, from her." The Colonel pointed at Alison. "A story so bizarre, it doesn't do it justice to hear it from anyone but its protagonist." He smirked.

"Colonel Mustang," Alison speaks up and stepped forward. "I can more than understand your skepticism, but-"

"Oh, I don't think you do." He interrupted. "Miss Rigby, I am the commanding officer of a number of officers. Officers that look to me for leadership and certainty. I _have_ to be certain in every decision I make. If I'm not, if I second guess myself, people could die." Mustang stood from his desk and approached the young woman. He towered over her. "So when I hear a bizarre story, about a young woman seemingly from another world, who just happens to come in to contact with one of my more-" He glanced at Edward, "vulnerable officers, I'm more than just skeptical.

"Who are you calling vulnerable?!" Ed snapped.

"Surely, you understand how suspicious this all is. For all I know, you're a spy from Creta or Drachma. Or, you're one of those _things_ that you seem to have had a run in with the other night. So, Miss Rigby, tell me, why shouldn't I have you dragged out of here and thrown in a prison cell?" Mustang snarled. His deep blue eyes tried to bore into her own.

"Mustang, that's enough!" Ed barked. Mustang ignored the young man and continued to stare her down.

"You're absolutely right." Alison said suddenly. Her voice shook slightly. "I shouldn't just expect someone to just accept this without question. The only reason the Elrics could accept it, was because they were practically there with me through every step of discovery as we started to piece together what might have happened. I'm still not so sure I believe any of this myself." She murmured. "All of this…it's insane but it's true! And I can stand here and tell you that until I'm blue in the face, but that isn't going to make any difference if you can't put your trust in the judgement of the Elric brothers!" She asserted and pointed to Ed.

"I understand that you have to be careful, your judgment could mean life or death for people. And I know, as a man respected by his officers, you wouldn't put your trust in someone that could put those officers in danger." She held her head high and stared right back at him. "I won't ask you to believe my experience. But please believe me when I tell you, I would never do anything to hurt those brothers, or anyone else." Alison turned her head to look at Edward. "They helped me when I was utterly lost. They've saved my life. I care about them." She turned back to Mustang. "All I want is to help them and go home to my world."

Mustang stared at the young woman with an emotionless mask, before a smirk crossed his face and he let out a chuckle.

"Fine." He said.

"What? Really?" Ed's eyes seemed to light up.

"I don't know if I buy the theory about another world on the other side of the Gate, but I have faith in Miss Rigby's good intentions." Mustang walked back to his desk. "But understand this," he narrowed his eyes at the woman. "If you give me _any_ reason to think otherwise, I will not hesitate to either throw you in a cell, or burn you to a crisp."

"A…crisp?" She asked. Mustang smirked again.

"Fullmetal must have forgotten to mention. I'm a State Alchemist as well. My specialty is fire alchemy. They call me the Flame Alchemist."

"Oh…well that's super neat." She smiled nervously.

"Permission to be dismissed?" Ed interjected with a glare.

"Permission granted." Mustang smirked and waved his hand dismissively.

* * *

"Holy shit, that was nerve wracking." Alison let out a sigh of relief as the two walked out of the building.

"Don't let that smug bastard scare you." Ed smirked and put a hand on her shoulder.

Alison smiled back at him.

"I was nervous at first, but I felt better having you there." She said. A light blushed dusted Ed's face for a moment before he laughed it off.

"I didn't do anything, really. You're the one who didn't let that bastard push you over!"

"My dad probably would've been proud. He always tried to instill in us the motto of 'do no harm, but take no shit.' He hated the idea of my brother or I being taken advantage of because we were too afraid to speak up."

"You haven't spoken much about your family since the first couple of days you were here." Ed pointed out.

"Yeah…" Aliso smiled sadly and looked down. "It's been almost two weeks here, and assuming time passes the same in both worlds, it's been two weeks there, too. Two weeks of not knowing where I am. All they probably found was my car. They must be losing their minds. I've just been trying not to think about it, ya know? If I dwell on it and upset myself, what good will that do?" She tried to hide her pain through her words, but she knew Ed saw right through it. "I'm gonna have a lot of questions to answer when I get back." She tried to hide it with a grin.

"Don't worry, we'll be able to get you back to your world." Ed reassured her. "Damn," he stopped suddenly. "I forgot I was supposed to meet Al at the library after the meeting with Mustang. Um, do you want me to walk you back to the dorms?" He asked.

"Oh, Edward, such a gentleman." She brought the back of her hand to her chin and made an exaggerated giggle, imitating a Victorian era woman. Ed raised an eyebrow in response and opened to his mouth as if to say something, before closing it. "Just go." She sighed, realizing the joke was a wash.

"Yeah…okay. See ya later." He chuckled and took off toward the library.

Alison returned to an empty dormitory and tried to ignore the sinking pain in her chest. She walked to her room and rummaged through her bag. She pulled out her lawn blanket. It was intended to be a barrier between the grass for Amber and her for what was supposed to be a fun backyard camping trip. She should be studying and worrying about finishing a paper on the Cold War or remembering math equations. Her biggest worries should be her schoolwork and what to be for Halloween. Not constantly looking of her shoulder in case one of the homunculi were following her or being thrown in jail on suspicion of being a spy. She didn't even know that was a worry until now. Not to mention the constant confusion of why she was here in the first place.

She sniffed the blanket. It smelled like home. The pain in her chest finally broke as she buried her face in the blanket and sobbed.

* * *

"Hey, Al." Ed greeted his brother when he finally arrived back. Al went back ahead of his brother, Ed having been recruited for some extra office clean up. "Where's Ali?" He asked, looking around and realizing she wasn't in the common room.

"She's been in her room since I've been back. She hasn't come out." Alphonse told him, concern evident in his voice. Ed looked confused. Sure, they hadn't known her for very long, but it still didn't seem like her to just lock herself away.

"Are you sure she's even in there?"

"I knocked on her door. She answered and said she just wanted to be left alone." Al explained. "Did something happen with the Colonel?"

"No, all things considered it went pretty well." Ed pondered. He walked to her door and gently knocked.

"Ali?" He called. He didn't get a response. He shared a concerned glance with Alphonse. "Um…are you hungry?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks." They heard a soft voice come from the room.

"She mentioned something earlier about her family and how worried they must be." Ed told his brother. "Maybe she's kind of upset about it."

"What should we do?" Al asked.

They didn't exactly have a lot of experience with this. They were young when they lost their mother, and when Winry lost her parents. While they knew the situations weren't the same, she probably still felt a similar grief. But the way they helped Winry with the death of her parents, and her help with the death of their mother, it was different. As children that knew one another closely, they were all able to grieve openly with each other. But with Alison, she held her grief behind a closed door.

"Maybe we should give her some space?" Ed suggested. "Maybe she'll feel better in the morning."

* * *

Morning came and Alison had still never left her room. The brothers were growing more concerned.

"At this point, we're just being negligent not checking on her, right?" Ed asked Alphonse for reassurance. "Like if she's actually really sick or something."

"What are you suggesting?" Alphonse questioned.

Ed approached their companion's door. He knocked and called her name. When he didn't get a response, he tried to open the door. It was locked. He turned to look at Alphonse again.

"It's just irresponsible at this point if we don't make sure she's ok." Al said with a shrug.

Ed clapped his hands together and placed a hand on the doorknob. Sparks encircled the doorknob before it fell to the floor. Ed pushed opened the door to find their new friend huddled under the blanket that came with her when she passed through. She was curled in a ball with her back to the door. She jumped and spun her head toward the door when the clattered to the floor.

"Jesus, do y'all not understand privacy in this world?" She groaned and rubbed her face.

Her accent was heavier than usual. 'Y'all' being a term she mostly used when she was tired, going off on a tangent about something, or angry. That was usually when her accent was heavier. She had said her accent was just called a 'southern' accent where she was from.

Her eyes were puffy and it was obvious she has been crying.

"We were worried about you." Alphonse responded. "You've been locked away in here for more than twelve hours.

"I'm fine. I'd really just like some time alone." She murmured.

"You're obviously upset about something." Ed pushed.

"I really would rather not talk about it." Her voice cracked slightly. She pulled the blanket closer against her and laid back down.

"Is it about your family?" Alphonse asked softly after a few moments. She was quiet for a while and bit at her lip as tears swelled in her eyes.

"Yeah." She spoke softly as tears fell again. She was glad she wasn't facing them.

The brothers entered her room and approached her bed. Ed sat at the foot of her bed.

"I just…I didn't want to bother y'all with my moping. You've been through so much worse. I didn't want to put my emotional burdens on y'all as well." She clutched at something metallic in her hands.

"Is that your camera?" Ed asked. She clutched it tighter and nodded her head.

"I was looking through pictures. I miss my friends and family, so I wanted to look at pictures of them. I thought it would make me feel better." She stared at the camera before sitting up in her bed to face the brothers. "The battery died. So I have no way to ever see these pictures again. And by chance if I never find a way home…I'll never get to see them again, even in pictures." Tears started falling freely. "What if I forget what they look like?" She looked at Edward and Alphonse with heartbroken eyes.

"You know, we know what it's like to have family taken away." Ed said softly. "Al and I…Winry…we're all orphans. We know the pain of loss all too well. And it helps if you have someone to help you through them. We helped Winry through the death of her parents. And she and her grandmother helped us." Ed told her.

"We can help you through this." Al said. "True, you aren't orphaned like we are, but like us, you're also not alone in this."

"But you can't just stop." Edward added. "You can't let your grief, your fears, or anything stop you. You have to keep moving forward."

Alison just seemed to stare at her camera in her hands. After a few moments she looked at them and gave her best attempt at a smile.

"Thank you. It does make me feel better that I'm not alone."

"There's a place a couple of blocks from here that serves some pretty good breakfast. I'm starving! What do you say we go eat?" Edward suggested excitedly.

"You two go. I told Scheska I'd help her with some paperwork today in exchange for borrowing some books." Al said.

Ed looked to the brunette for her answer.

"Sure. Let me take a shower first." She smiled. Ed's eyes seemed to light up knowing food was imminent.

* * *

A few days went by. Alison tried to not let her depression over missing her world weigh on her too much. Which was much easier said than done. So, she kept busy as much as possible. She'd asked the brothers to help her learn alchemy. Since it was such a core part of this country, it would probably be important for her to learn, especially since she seemed to have some kind of connection to the science. She practiced alchemy, trying simple transmutation. The brothers told her that her skills almost came naturally, but she wasn't sure if they were just being nice or not. She studied other subjects of interest and history of the world she was in. Sometimes, when no one was in the dorm, and she was feeling pretty upbeat, she would listen to her music on her speaker and dance around in her room.

Ed made his way to his dorm, and as he approached the door, he heard music. Not like music he'd heard before. He entered the dormitory and realized the music was coming from Alison's room. Making his way to her room, he quietly opened the door. Inside he saw her dancing and singing along to the strange music. With her back to him, she was moving her head and neck quickly, making nonsensical hand motions, and gyrating and shaking her hips. Edward asked himself if this was something he should even be seeing, whatever ritual this was seemed private. Probably why the door was shut.

" _I know that that I can't take no more, it ain't no lie! I wanna see you out that door, baby bye, bye, bye_!" She sang and did a strange motion with her arm waving from left to right.

Ed kept thinking to himself, he should probably leave. She would probably be really mad if she caught him watching her. It was then that she turned around in her dancing and stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed him in the doorway. She froze for a moment before quickly killing the music.

"How long have you been there?" She asked.

"Probably longer than I should have." He replied with a sheepish grin. "Um...pretty cool dance moves."

She quickly approached him and stopped in front of him and pointed a warning finger in his face.

"You are not to speak about this to anyone, got that?"

"Is that how you say goodbye where you're from?"

"Get out."

"You want to see me out that door?" He asked while thumbing to the door behind him. "Don't be embarrassed. You can tell me goodbye like you do in your world. You know," He did the same left to right arm motion, "Bye, bye, bye."

"I literally can't stand you." She groaned while a dramatic eye roll. Edward was holding his sides he was laughing so hard.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" His apology sounded hollow through his laughter. "But seriously, is that how people in your world dance?" He questioned incredulously.

"No! We have other dances!" She snapped.

"Okay, I believe you!" He held his hands as his laughter died down.

"Well, does _your_ world even have dancing?" She scoffed.

"We have dancing!" He replied defensively. "I just don't really know any." He muttered.

When Alphonse returned to their dorm, he returned to music playing. He opened the door to find his brother and Alison, standing close to each other, his brother arm wrapped around her waist while she had a hand on his shoulder, and holding hands. Whatever they were doing, they stopped immediately when Alphonse walked in. He saw his brothers face quickly turn red.

"What…are you two doing?" He asked hesitantly.

"Waltzing!" Alison replied gleefully. The similarities of the two worlds with even just small things was amazing. It was amazing that the waltz was the same dance and went by the same name in this world as her own. "Want me to teach you?"

"Oh, no thanks. I already know how." He replied. Alison gasped and broke away from Edward.

"Dance with me!" She demanded.

"Al, you're so graceful!" Alison complimented as they fluidly danced across the room.

"When did you learn to dance?!" Ed demanded.

"Second Lieutenant Ross taught me!" Al replied happily.

"It's okay, Ed. I'll teach you how to dance." Alison winked. She and Al both laughed when Ed's face turned red.

Yes, she was very lucky to have the Elric brothers by her side.


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter contains violence and animal abuse.

Also, I would love to know what many of you think about the new version of the story!

I also just noticed that when I would put a larger space between paragraphs to indicate a scene change, it wasn't translating that here correctly and it just looked like a jumbled mess. So I gotta fix that with the other cheaters soon. Anyways, I hope it's easier to read now! Enjoy!

* * *

"So, where'd you learn to dance?" Alphonse asked their brunette companion.

"My grandmother insisted I take etiquette classes when I was ten. I had to learn some ballroom dancing as well." Alison answered. "The girls got paired up with the boys for dance partners. I had this big crush on my partner, Steven Rosinko. After our class ended, I told him I had a crush on him and he said he didn't like girls with freckles." Alison shrugged.

"That's a dumb reason." Ed scoffed. "I like your freckles." He said, and immediately blushed. "I mean-!"

"Thanks, Ed." She chuckled. "He was a jerk anyways. I'm over it."

"I almost forgot!" Al gasped and ran to his room. He came back carrying a box and something else.

"You fixed it today? That's great, Al!" Ed said happily. Al approached their friend. He gave Alison her camera and its charger.

"I was able to modify the charger to work with the power ports here. So you can look at your pictures."

Alison stared at the objects in awe.

"Al is much better with wires and electronics than I am. If anyone could fix it, it'd be him." Ed bragged about his little brother. "There's something else." Al handed her the box.

She opened it to find another camera, one from this world.

"Now you can take pictures here too, and keep them." Al told her.

Alison pressed her hand against her mouth as tears swelled in her eyes.

"Are you okay? Did we upset you?" Alphonse asked worriedly.

"No, not at all." She smiled. "I'm really happy. Thank you, so much." She stood up and hugged the armor gaining a hug back from Alphonse, before kneeling down and hugging Edward. Ed wasn't sure how to react for a moment before returning the hug.

* * *

"Ok, I set the timer!" Alison proclaimed. She ran back to brothers and posed with them. The camera on the counter dinged and flashed as it took the picture. "Now I'll have a picture of all of us together! I can't wait to get it developed!"

"I'm sure Lt. Colonel Hughes knows the best place to develop them. He takes a lot of pictures of his family. He's actually the one who recommended this camera." Al told their friend.

"Just don't start going crazy like he does. You can't spend five minutes with the guy without him shoving pictures of his wife and daughter in your face." Ed added.

* * *

A couple of weeks in another world turned in to a couple of months. And the young woman and her companions had hit a dead end in their research. The homunculi hadn't resurfaced since the night in the alley, so no answers or clues could be coaxed from them. Xerxian history books were pretty shallow. Most books Alison could find reiterated the same basic information of kings, wars, technology, and its downfall. Despite ruins still existing to this day, the knowledge of what happened to Xerxes or its people, or even how they lived, was extremely limited. She almost felt she would need to travel to the ruins herself to find anything else out.

In the meantime, she was offered a part time job at the library. She would organize and put away books a few days a week, and in return she was given money as well as an extended borrowing window for books. It was understood with the librarian that she may have to leave to travel with the brothers at any time. It wasn't much, but it helped her from remaining completely dependent on the Elrics.

* * *

"Al! I have great news!" Ed burst through the dorm door, startling his brother and Alison. "There's a serial killer in Kujec!" He shouted gleefully.

"Um…" Al started after a moment of silence. "How is that great news?"

"Oh, heh." Ed grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "Right. It appears as though the serial killer is trying to create chimeras with humans!"

"So that means they're either an advanced alchemist or have a Philosopher's stone!" Alphonse finished.

"Mustang is sending us under the guise that the military is suspicious it's a discharged State Alchemist gone rogue."

"When do we leave?" Al asked excitedly.

"Tomorrow morning!"

"Hey, my friends and I used to research serial killers and psychology back home! Maybe I can help!" Alison suggested.

"Absolutely not." Al said quickly.

"What?"

"It's too dangerous." Ed added.

"I've literally been stalked and hunted by homunculi but this is too dangerous?" She scoffed with crossed arms.

"That's different. And Al and I can't be with you every moment if this killer sets his eyes on you. We don't even know what his type is yet. So when we get to Kujec, we don't want you leaving the hotel without one of us." Ed told her.

"Whatever." She mumbled. Maybe she could get a peek at some case files.

* * *

"Are you still mad at us?" Ed asked Alison on the train.

Alphonse had left the two alone in their private cabin while he went to check out the scenery on the other side of the train. Or that's at least what he said. Edward had a sneaking suspicion that his brother was just trying to get him alone more with their newest travelling companion. He said something a few days ago about the way Ed "looked at her." Ed had no idea what his brother was going on about. Yes, she was pretty, she was smart, fun to be around, and once she had her bearings in this world, she gained nerves of steel. She was amazing. Amazing? Ed didn't know where that had come from. He tried to ignore that he could be blushing now.

"I'm over it." She mumbled, not looking up from her book. "Ya know, I can't find really any different information on this princess of Xerxes. I mean, they called her the _Blessing of the Moon Goddess_ due to her eyes and hair being silver like the moon. And they talk about her marriage to Emperor Cho, they name her children, then her insanity and her death. But it's all information that fits in like half a page, and that's it. Usually with important figures like that there's much more on their upbringing, schooling, stuff like that." She mused about her research.

"Ali, seriously, this is important." Ed sighed. "You're doing that 'I'm fine' thing that says you're going to do what you want anyways."

Alison frowned behind her book. How could he read her that easily already? That nickname, too. It was pretty much all he called her now. Only he did though. She found she didn't mind it too much.

"You could get hurt, or worse, killed!" Ed continued.

"I get it, Ed." She snipped. "I won't leave without an escort." She gave in, though not happily.

"Alison." He said her full name. Oh damn, that meant he really was serious. She closed her book and folded her hands on top of the cover.

She met his eyes and tried to ignore just how handsome he was, something she'd been trying to ignore from day one if she was honest with herself. His golden eyes cut right through her when he looked at her like that. It made her heart pound against her chest, feeling so vulnerable, but so excited to be seen through so openly.

"Alison, you are…" Ed stopped, like he was thinking of the right words. "Agh!" he stood up and paced the cabin slowly, scratching the back of his head. "How do I say this?" He asked aloud. "You aren't just someone who is helping us with our research" He started. He paused his pacing and sat down next to her. He slouched a little but turned towards her. "We've spent a lot of time together lately. You're our friend. We don't want anything to happen to you." A warm hand came to rest gently on hers. That simple action made something in her chest jump.

Alison looked away, unable to meet that gaze any longer. It felt like her ears were on fire.

"I know." She sighed. "I'll stay put when we get there." She still didn't sound happy about it, but she at least sounded sincere and that was enough for the blonde.

It was silent for a moment before Alison put her book away and rummaged through her bag. She pulled out her mp3 player and earbuds.

"Wanna listen to some music?" She asked, putting one bud in her ear and holding the other out. Ed smiled and nodded. She sat closer to him, and after handing him a bud, she put one in her own ear, closed her eyes, and used his shoulder as a pillow. Edward tensed for a moment, the action taking him by surprise. It felt like his heart hit chest. He told himself to relax. The moment was nice, and dammit he wanted to enjoy it.

"Ok, so Burger King is this chain restaurant in my world."

"What's a chain restaurant?"

"It's a franchise, like there's multiple ones that have the same design and menu. They usually hire extremely cheap labor. Sometimes these laborers are bitter towards asshole customers. Onion rings are basically the ring of an onion, battered and deep fried. So that's what Eminem means when he says, ' _could be working at Burger King, spitting on your onion rings_ ' that there could be a fan of his with a similar upbringing or situation that idles him, anywhere at any time."

Al walked back in on the strangest conversation, the two teens sitting close together with an earbud stuck in their ears.

"I still don't understand why this person would spit in someone's food." Ed seemed so disgusted yet intrigued.

"It's a 'stick it to the man' kind of gesture." She replied.

"But who is the man and what are they sticking him with?!"

Alison's explanations weren't helping.

* * *

Kujec was a small yet populated town. Alison guessed it to be an average town, though her only scale of reference was between Frondt and Central. It was larger than Frondt but much smaller than Central.

"In a sleepy town in west Amestris, a killer awaits in the shadows." Alison spoke in a deep gravelly voice, imitating the guy who used to voice over movie trailers.

"If you get us ran out of this town, you're telling Mustang why. _And_ finding us a new lead." Ed whispered under his breath. Half the time he had no idea what she was even saying. It was all just references from her world that he never got. It was both frustrating and endearing.

"Yeah, alright." She sighed and kept her movie commentary to herself.

The three made it to their hotel room to settle in. Alison thought about the people in the lobby whispering to each other about how the police brought in a State Alchemist because of the killings. Ed seemed to be dwelling on what they said too. He seemed irritable after overhearing one man ask another if Al was the state alchemist, followed by, "You mean the short kid?"

"We have to go to the police station." Edward informed the brunette.

"Can I come?" She asked.

"We're just getting a copy of the case files and bringing them back here so we can get familiar with them before our real investigation starts tomorrow. It won't take long." Al told her.

"Remember, don't go anywhere without one of us." Ed reminded her.

"Got it." She sighed and flopped down on her bed.

When the boys returned Alison abandoned the book she was reading in favor of the case files. She looked through with the brothers, studying each photo and report.

"He's escalating." She said. "The first one was found in an alley, and each kill is found earlier and earlier. The last one was found on a playground. If he's going to kill again, he's going to dump the body in a more public place than that." She explained.

"And it doesn't look like he's trying to make a chimera." Alphonse added. "The wings look like they're just attached superficially, not for actual use."

"I think this guy wants to be found eventually. Why else would he be so bold with his body dumps?" Edward mused.

"Could be guilt, not wanting to keep them from a proper burial. Or could be to taunt the investigators." Alison said. "It's so weird though, it's like he's trying to make them look like Angel's, with the large white wings and the white dress he puts them in. Did they find a cause of death?"

"They aren't sure but they think it's poisoning. There are no signs of strangulation, trauma, or hemorrhaging to the body. It almost looks like they all died of natural causes. The only clue is an injection point on the most recent victim's thigh. They didn't notice one on the other victims, and after finding it on her, the others had already been buried." Ed told her.

"I wonder what kind of bird it is." Al mused.

"I think it's a swan." Alison said.

Ed wrote down all of their findings and theories to take to the station the next day.

"Someone who has access to several large birds, and dumps bodies in public locations, I can't believe they haven't caught him yet." Alphonse said.

* * *

The brothers had been gone _all day_ , only coming back briefly for lunch. Alison had read as much as she could stand before she just got plain bored. Lunch had worn off and she was bored and hungry. There was a general store just down the street, a block from the hotel. It was still daylight, the sun just having started to set. Surely it would be fine to go just go a block in daylight alone. Her stomach growled as if agreeing with her.

Alison was about to get a hard lesson in dumb bitch decisions.

She picked out a plethora of snacks at the store. She stood in line with her arms full, excited to get back and start eating. The brothers would be mad when they saw she'd left but they'd get over it.

Suddenly, she was yanked by the arm as a man that walked past her seemed to trip and grab her arm for stability. Something seemed to bite into her skin on his hand, but she figured it was a ring or something pinching her skin.

"My apologies, miss!" The man corrected his posture. He was an average look man, light brown hair, green eyes, normal clothes. She shrugged it off and thought nothing of it and approached the register when it was her turn.

Alison left the store with a brown bag of goodies and walked back to the hotel. A few yards in she shook her head. She felt weird. She attributed it to hunger until her vision started to blur.

"Oh shit…" She muttered. "You dumb bitch." She said to herself as her limbs started to feel heavy.

The effects came on quick. She dropped her bag and tried to move quickly and make it to the hotel. The sun was still up, he wouldn't, not in the light of day! Right? She stumbled to her knees and clutched at the wall. She tried to look around through her blurred vision, to look for someone to help her. She saw someone approach her and she reached out to them. The stranger scooped her up in his arms and carried her further away from her destination.

"No…" She croaked weakly.

"Shhh. Now, now, none of that." The man took her down an alley and opened the back of a car and gently placed her in the back.

"Please, don't." She whimpered.

She could only see a smile before the doors closed.

* * *

"We should really stop and get some dinner before we go back. If Alison is hungry, she's going to be really grumpy when we get there." Al suggested to his brother. "We could stop at that Xingese place we passed earlier. She likes those noodles, right?"

The brothers walked up the steps to their room with a bag of take out.

"Are you eating her dumplings?" Al accused his brother as he popped another dumpling in his mouth.

"Shh! She won't notice!"

"She will if you only leave her one!" The brothers argued as they opened the door to their room. They went to greet their friend only to find the room empty.

They asked the hotel clerk if he'd seen her, only to be told she'd left about an hour ago and hadn't been back. Worry evident in them, they went out to search the streets, hoping she'd just gone to a restaurant or something and was still there. Until they found an abandoned bag of food, that also just happened to be filled with her favorite snacks. It felt like something hit Edward in the gut and he felt an intense chill hit his body.

* * *

Alison opened her eyes and focused to find herself bound to a chair in a dim room.

"Good, you're awake. It seems I've gotten the hang of the dosing." A voice said from somewhere in the shadows. The owner of the voice stepped forward into the light to reveal himself as the man who'd grabbed her arm at the store.

"Why are you doing this?" She slurred out, the drug still weighing heavily on her.

"Infamy, of course." He grinned. "If they ever catch me, my mind and methods will be studied for decades to come! Everyone will know my name!" He proclaimed.

"You don't have to do this." She tried to reason with him.

"But I do. It's the best way to ensure I don't die a simple nobody. Besides," He shrugged his shoulders. "You've already seen my face. I know, you say you won't tell anyone, but we both know you will, so let's not grovel and just get to it."

He approached her with a syringe and injected her with something in her outer thigh. "This takes a while to work, but it's the only way to make it as painless as possible for you." He told her. "You will simply fall asleep in a while, and that will be it." He cooed and stroked her hair.

Tears started to fall. She'd never make it home again. She would never see her friends or family again. She was going to die in this creep's house because she wanted snacks! She just kept thinking of how she should have listened, how she'd never see the Elrics again.

"I'm sorry Ed, I'm sorry Al. I'm so sorry." She kept mumbling through her tears. The man walked over to a corner of the room and lifted a sheet off of a box. It was a metal crate that held a swan. He reached in and snatched it by it's neck. The bird honked in fear and flapped its wings violently before it was silenced by a snap of its neck. Her captor held the dead bird by its broken neck.

"Wh-what are you doing with that?" She felt her stomach drop and her muscles froze so stiffly in fear that they burned.

"I'm going to make you an angel." He grinned.

It was in the next moment she heard the sound of flesh being punctured and bones breaking. She looked up to see spikes protruding from the man's forehead, neck, and chest. He stood there lifeless before flopping to the floor when the spikes retracted. She looked past the corpse to see the homunculi known only as Lust. A new fear overcame the young woman.

Lust extended her fingers and sliced away at her binds.

"Leave." She instructed. "And take this with you, if you want any chance of surviving what he injected in you." She tossed her a vial.

"Why are you saving me?" She asked with a shaking voice.

Lust snarled. "Don't be so stupid. It does us no good to die in a way that doesn't suit our needs. And we can't give you an antidote for that poison, so we have to let you go to a hospital. Now the longer we stand here talking, the more of your time you're running out of."

Alison didn't waste anymore time and ran past her and out of the house. The home appeared to be a townhouse in the middle of the town. She ran in the first direction her legs took her. She rounded a corner to run straight into a wall of armor.

"Alison! We've been looking everywhere for you! What happened?!" He asked frantically.

"Al, I need to get to a hospital, now!" She cried out. "I don't know what this is but it's a poison and he put it in me." She shoved the vial in his hands. Her shocked adrenaline allowed her to fight the drowsy effects of the poison for as long as it could.

"Ed! She's here!" Al called. He gasped when the woman slumped to the ground. "Don't worry! The police are with us! You'll be okay!" He tried to reassure her.

She could hear Ed's voice as he came running towards them, and she found herself hoping she would get to see Edward one more time.

* * *

Alison was awoken by an alarm clock beeping loudly. She hit the button to turn it off and sat up in bed. She groggily got out of bed, nearly tripping over a pile of clothes. As she thought about how she needed to clean her room, she came to the chilling realization that she was in _her_ room. In _her_ world.

"This… can't be right." She murmured to herself. She picked up her phone to see the date read the Friday that she disappeared. Like the entire day hadn't even happened. She dropped her phone and rushed to her door. She swung it open only to be met by an empty white void. When she turned around, her room had turned into the same. A feeling of confusion and dread washed over her. She touched her face to realize she couldn't feel anything. This had to be a dream. Or she'd truly died and was now in some weird limbo.

She started walking, hoping the void would lead somewhere. It didn't for a very long time.

After a while of walking she saw a house in the distance. A two-story house with a wraparound porch. She approached it and stepped in. The house was spacious, yet empty. No furniture or décor. She walked upstairs and entered a room. It was the only room that wasn't empty, and the colors looked brighter, not the faded look of the rest of the house. It was a bedroom, with a large bed covered in a pattern quilt.

She walked past a vanity and caught her reflection. She was dressed in a form fitting dark blue dress, her hair pinned up gracefully, and wearing make up. She sat in front of the vanity to study her appearance. She looked older. A photo caught her attention. It was of her and Edward, holding each other close in a snowy background, noses and cheeks pink from the cold with large grins.

The door opened suddenly and she turned to see Edward in formal military garb. He looked older, too. He was taller, his shoulders broader, his face thinner. He was handsome and she found herself at a loss for words.

"You look beautiful." He smiled. Alison didn't know words and a smile could literally make it hard to breathe.

"Um…you too." She replied. He chuckled.

"Come on, or we'll be late." He said and walked out of the room. Once he passed through the threshold he disappeared into a white void.

_Wake up._

Alison spun around, to find herself back in the emptiness. She swore she heard a voice. She sighed and slumped to the ground. Her chest hurt. If she was dead…she'd never see her family again. She'd never see Alphonse again. Or Edward. She'd never get to tell him…

She shook her head. She couldn't be dead. Besides, there was no point in telling Ed how she felt. In the end, when she did go home, it would only hurt more. Some things were better left unsaid. Besides, she didn't need to focus on crushes right now. She needed to focus on getting home. Sheesh, she didn't have this much interest in the boys in her high school. Now, when she's in a strange world literally fighting for her life, she decided to take an interest in the more romantic aspects of boys. Edward, to be more specific.

She laid back on the ground and closed her eyes. She wondered if she could sleep in this state. How long had she been here now? It felt like she had walked for days, like she'd laid there for hours in deafening silence.

A bright light shone above her, piercing through her eye lids. She put her hand in front of her eyes and shot up when she found herself in what looked like a warzone. Buildings were destroyed, debris and bodies scattered the ground. Was this Central? She scrambled to her feet and ran in the direction she thought the dorms were in. Her path was blocked by a large pile of rubble with a familiar red coat flapping in the wind.

She ran to the debris and found Edward's lifeless body face down in the pile.

"No…oh god, please no!" She pleaded. She flipped him over. He was cold. He wasn't breathing. "Ed…no…you cant be dead." She cried into his chest.

She caught site of Al's armor and scurried over to it. She pulled at the armor, and the helmet fell off, revealing the blood seal completely shattered. Somewhere in her head a voice told her this wasn't real. But her panic and grief felt real. She replaced the helmet and dragged the armor over to Edward's body. She collapsed to her knees and sobbed in front of them.

_Wake up._

There was that voice again. She turned around to see the three homunculi coming towards her.

The one known as Envy smirked at her. "Play time is over, kid. Time to come with us."

"Can I eat them, Lust?" The one known as Gluttony asked.

"No!" She cried out and attempted to shield the bodies with her own. Envy threw his head back and laughed.

"They're _dead_ kid! Get over it!"

"What did you do?!" She screamed through her tears.

"Only what was necessary." Lust spoke, smooth as always. "Now, don't make this any more difficult than it already has been. It's already been quite annoying." She hissed.

Lust's chest seemed to bulge out before a hand tore through the flesh, holding a red stone before pulling back through. The same happened to the others before they disintegrated in front of her. In their wake stood a young woman.

She was gorgeous, with long silver hair and piercing silver eyes. She wore beautiful golden robes. Alison looked on in a mixture of amazement and horror. Before Alison could react, the woman was standing directly in front of her.

"Wake up!" The woman yelled at her. "Everyone you know and love is going to die if you don't _wake up_!" She grabbed the front of Alison's shirt. The brunette pushed away and spun around to be in the white nothingness again.

She sighed with relief. That wasn't real either.

"Wake up!" Alison spun around to find the silver woman behind her. She grabbed her shoulders. Alison could actually feel her fingers digging into her skin.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" She repeated and shook the brunette.

"Stop!" She demanded and tried to break away from the other woman.

Something wrapped around her wrist and pulled downward. She looked down to see herself standing over a black puddle, arms emerging from it and entangling around her.

* * *

The doctors were able to stop the poison from killing her, but they hadn't been fast enough to keep it from doing damage. Alison had been unconscious for four days with no signs of waking up.

Edward sat next to her bed, like he had for the past four days. Alphonse had left shortly to give Edward some privacy. Al knew sometimes when no one was around, Ed would talk to the unconscious woman.

"Why didn't you just listen to me?" He asked her. He clasped her hand with his flesh and automail hands. "Just…please wake up." He wrapped her fingers around his automail hand remembering the night she couldn't sleep after the homunculi attacked, holding his hand had brought her comfort and grounding.

He suddenly saw the hand twitch and he perked up. Her fingers twitched around his automail.

"Can you hear me?" He asked excitedly.

His excitement died quickly as her entire body seemed to convulse violently. He ran out of the room to get help for his friend. Nurses and doctors flooded the room and shut the door in his face. Edward could only look at the door helplessly.

* * *

The silver woman had disappeared, all that was left were the spindly arms wrapping around her and pulling her into the puddle. She fought violently as she sunk deeper and deeper. She felt the cold puddle at her neck as she stared above her. The silver woman stepped in view, standing over her.

"Wake up." She said calmly.

"I want to wake up!" Alison cried desperately. "Help me wake up!"

The woman reached down and placed a gentle hand on Alison's forehead. It felt like her head was splitting open, so many things flashed in her mind. She screwed her eyes shut. The thought of some kind of protective dome encircling her came to mind. She could hear the voice of the silver woman, telling her the formulas and compositions. The next thing she knew, she was encircled in total darkness.

* * *

The doctors and nurses tried to hold her down to administer and anticonvulsant but she fought and squirmed. The floor seemed to spark and crackle then suddenly morph upwards to create a bubble around her, knocking the workers backwards.

The brothers broke the door open when they heard screaming and the sound of transmutation. They saw where Alison's bed had been, protected by a structure morphed from the floor, encompassing the entire bed. Edward slowly approached the wall and gently knocked.

Alison's breathing was heavy and ragged. She saw nothing but darkness but could feel a soft material under her. Straight ahead, she heard a light knock.

"Ali…" She heard a voice muffled through something. "It's ok. Please, come out."

"Edward?" She crawled on her knees toward the sound and gently put her hand against a hard surface.

A wall? Was it the protective wall she'd envisioned? She put her palm flat against the surface and the material began to break away. Alison closed her eyes against the bright light that poured into the darkness. A hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her forward. She was pulled from the darkness and fell against a hard chest. She clutched at the chest as she and Edward sunk to the floor. She tried to hold back her tears but they fell anyways. She grabbed his automail arm and clutched it tightly. She felt the cool of the metal against her hands, the hardness of the surface.

"It's real." She whispered in relief. "You're real this time." She buried her face in Edward's chest. He put a hand on her head and hugged her closer, then looked at his brother with both worry and relief.

He whispered soft words to her; assurances that she was awake, that he was real, and that she was okay. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her shoulder. He felt tears of exhaustion and relief begin to sting at his eyes. Every time he told her she was okay, he felt like he was telling himself, too.

* * *

Alison was shortly discharged from the hospital after a few tests. She explained to the police what happened and just spoke of a mysterious savior. The police were finally able to close the case and the group could return to Central. The three didn't speak much while on the train. Alison was still trying to come to grips that this was finally reality, also feeling horribly guilty for not listening to the brothers.

If she had, she wouldn't have almost died. Edward's silence was obviously out of anger for the same reason. But he kept quiet because, honestly, he was just happy she was alive. While Alphonse was also upset with her, he just stayed quiet because he worried any attempt at conversation would start a fight.

"I'm sorry." Alison spoke softly, finally breaking the silence an hour into the train ride. "I thought…it doesn't matter. If I'd just listened…"

"If you'd listened you wouldn't have almost died!" Ed snapped. In the back of his mind he wondered if this is what it felt like to be the Colonel.

"I know." She looked at her hands.

"You're safe now." Alphonse interjected. "Just…please take things more serious next time."

Edward shot an annoyed glance toward his brother for going so easy on her, but he kept his mouth shut and looked out the window.

"How did you transmute like that?" Al asked suddenly.

They inspected her work. There were no circles, the nurse said she hadn't clapped her hands, she didn't even remember doing it outside of her limbo dream. The question caught Ed's attention. He didn't want to question her too much while she was still so shaken up, but Al asked, and if she was willing to talk, he was going to listen.

"I don't know." She replied. "When I was asleep, I saw things. I guess they were like dreams, but far more vivid. And there was this woman… I think she was the princess of Xerxes. She kept telling me to wake up. And then these arms like from the Gate started grabbing me and pulling me down into this sludge thing, and I thought I was going to drown. Then she touched my head and I could hear her telling me all these things and I could envision the circles and I knew the material makeup and it just happened."

"What else did you see? In your dreams?" Ed asked curiously.

"They aren't important." She replied. Edward gave her a stern look, not trying to look angry at her, but to say please don't hide and important information from him.

"I'd prefer to not talk about them. Some of it was stuff that was pretty nice or not that bad…others I'd rather forget."

"I know they may be difficult to think of, but if the princess was part of them, the things you saw could be important." Al coaxed her softly. She sighed in defeat.

"I mean one dream was just me waking up in my room the morning before I came here, like none of this had happened. Another dream…Central was in ruins, and you were both dead." A silence followed that description. "Like I said…don't really want to think about it." She shrugged.

"What else did you see?" Ed asked. It was easier to get her to tell him things when she was already talking. She stared at him for a moment, a strange look flashing through her eyes. Her cheeks seemed to gain a bit more color.

"Nope." She croaked out. Edward narrowed his eyes at her, knowing she was lying. "Look, anything else that happened, it's not important. You don't get to know about all of it. Some of it I get to keep to myself." She crossed her arms and looked away. The blush on her face was deeper now. Now Edward really needed to know. Another time he might be able to pry it from her. But she'd been through enough so he let it go.

"We need to investigate your newfound ability to transmute without a circle when we return to Central . Until we find out what's going on, we need to keep this between us." Ed warned. Alphonse and Alison nodded in agreement.

"We should also note that it seems the homunculi are following us, or at least watching us closely since Lust was able to react so quickly." Al added.

Alison could tell Edward was still angry, but she could feel his anger webbing away as the train ride went


	6. Chapter 6

Alison woke in a cold sweat. Visions of white feathers and dark rooms swirled in her head.

"Near death experiences, right?" A voice said from the other side of her room. With a gasp, Alison searched for the owner of the voice. "They really mess with your head." A woman stood against the wall.

Her hair and eyes seemed to shine brightly in the pale moonlight, as if the color came from the moon itself. She was absolutely stunning. Even in the soft glow that filled the room Alison could see the staunch contrast between her silver hair and eyes, and her golden sun-kissed skin. Her full pink lips were pulled into a playful smirk, while her long lashes fluttered.

"Who are you?" Alison heard her question sound less out of concern of a stranger in her room, and more out of wonder of this beauty in front of her. The way her colorful robes still showed her full figure, her posture just displayed nobility and confidence.

"My name is Asta." She introduced herself. "I know you've been doing some research on me so let's skip the history lesson for now." She seemed to glide across the room effortlessly as she walked. And her voice, it was captivating like a siren's! She sat on the edge of the brunette's bed.

"The princess of Xerxes." Alison mused aloud. "So…you and I truly are connected somehow."

The silver woman nodded. "I've been connected to far too many souls to count. Thousands. Its almost like I was intentionally put into the bodies of sickly infants." A solemn look flashed through her eyes. "You are the one I'm destined to take down that monster with."

"Look, I'm just a teenager from a different world. I'm not really trying to meddle with the goings on in this world. It's really none of my business." Alison squeaked out nervously. "So really, if you could maybe just tell me how to get home…"

"That isn't how this works!" She snapped. "My soul has entered vessel after vessel for hundreds of years, and after each death my soul absorbs theirs like some kind of soul stealing sponge! Our souls are connected now, too! You don't get to run away! This is destiny!"

The woman let out an irritated sigh and rubbed her face. "I get it, I do. One day you're just enjoying life, and the next thing you know everything is wrong, your soul is tethered to the energy of the earth so it bounces from host to host, you start going insane because you hear the voices of your people in your head, and an uprising clan attacks your palace and slaughters you and your family."

"Jesus." Was all that escaped Alison's mouth.

"I'm getting off track." Asta shook her head and stared the other woman dead in the eyes. "You have unimaginable strength. _We_ have that strength! You have the power of a Philosopher's Stone _inside_ you. We can free this world from the poison that is the one they call Father!"

A sharp knock came at the door and the two women turned their attention to it. Asta chuckled.

"The day when we have to fight him is quickly approaching. We must prepare. But…don't forget to enjoy a little life here while you can. You'll be happy you did."

Alison snapped her eyes open to the sound of another knock. She sat up to find her room flooded with morning light, and completely alone. Asta had been in her dreams.

"Come in." She instructed the person on the other side of the door.

The door cracked open and Edward stuck his head in.

"Hey," He started hesitantly. "Just…checking to make sure you're okay."

Was he still upset that because she didn't listen she almost died? Definitely. But he was far more relieved than he expected to be, that she was safe. When Edward thought she was going to die, he felt a fear akin to possibly losing someone close to him; like Winry.

"After everything that's happened in the past couple of months, pretty sure my trauma mode is busted, so don't worry about me." She smiled softly at the blonde. "I'll get myself a good therapist when I get home." The brunette stretched and rolled out if bed. She shivered as her feet hit the cold floor. She caught the blonde man staring at her, concern clearly written on his face. "What?"

"You just…tend to keep things that bother you to yourself." He said.

"You're one to talk." She scoffed and earned a half-hearted glare from him. "Look, I'm just trying to get through all of this with as few mental breakdowns as possible." She shrugged.

Ed narrowed his eyes at her. There was no way this comparatively sheltered teenager who'd experienced nothing similar to any of this in her life, could be so nonchalant about nearly dying by the hands of a serial killer. He was getting frustrated. Sometimes she would talk so openly about anything, and other times it was like pulling teeth out of a lion to get her to open up at all, and he still hadn't pinned down which variable caused which outcome.

"My family doesn't exactly value emotional vulnerability." Alison suddenly explained quietly. "My immediate and extended family…ever since I could remember, what they valued most was intelligence, strength, and confidence. Talking about feelings showed vulnerability. My mother made sure I knew how to play the piano, my father made sure I could speak three different languages. My grandfather taught me how to survive in the wilderness, and my grandmother made sure I knew how to be prim and proper. Prepare yourself to be CEO but also make a nice housewife as a fallback. There's no time to talk about things like trauma. It's part of life, pack it down tight and move on."

"You don't have to do that with us." Edward told her.

"I know. It's difficult undoing sixteen years of mental conditioning." She tried a light-hearted chuckle, but all it did was give Edward a more open glance at the pain and fear inside of her. He knew what that felt like, and it killed him when he saw those, he cared about holding the same pain.

"Where's Al?" She asked suddenly.

"He's at the Lt. Colonel's house. Every year he has a party at his house to celebrate the winter solstice. Al is helping Gracia prepare." Edward told her. "When we got in yesterday, he told us the party was today. I was going to see if you'd like to go. Winry is also coming in from Rush Valley today for the party." There she went, changing the subject again, and getting Edward to prattle on like a fool. In the back of his mind he found himself wishing he was that talented at shifting conversations.

"Oh yeah. It's almost Christmas." She murmured to herself. She felt a sinking feeling in her chest momentarily as she thought about her family back home, still not knowing what happened to her.

"Christmas?" He prodded, thankfully breaking her from her thoughts.

"It's considered a significant holiday where I'm from. The winter solstice usually falls fairly close to the same day." She explained. "I'll go. It sounds like fun."

Her smile seemed genuine and Edward felt a quick jolt in the pit of his stomach. He wondered if he should seek a doctor about these weird internal reactions.

* * *

The four teenagers entered the threshold of the Hughes home. It was warm and smelled of delicious food. There was a hum of conversations resonating in the room, and it was decorated with garland and lights. For a moment, the sensations brought Alison to a merrier time and she felt a warmth envelope her from the inside out.

Winry handed Gracia a bottle of wine she'd brought and the two woman talked like old friends.

The warmth inside of Alison momentarily left when she entered the home full of strangers. She'd met most of them, but only through the occasional passing conversation with the Elrics. She felt a warm hand on her back between her shoulder blades as it seemed to guide her through the crowd and towards the kitchen. She glanced over to see Edward guiding her, either unconsciously, or sensing how uncomfortable she was. Either way, that hand seemed to burn through her back and to her chest.

"These parties are always too loud." He told her as they entered the mostly empty kitchen. "Do you want something to drink?" He moved to a table of beverages.

"Red wine, please." She answered.

He poured a glass for himself and for her. In the back of her mind she realized she'd never seen Edward drink, despite there not really being a legal drinking age in Amestris. She told herself to remain mindful; she was curious to see what a drinking Edward Elric was like.

Alison was impressed at how well Edward seemed to manage his alcohol. Or maybe she'd had a glass or two more than him. It was hard to tell, her face felt warm and her head a little dizzy. She didn't remember many of the details of Hughes' story, but the reaction Roy Mustang had to the story being told was the best part. It must have been a slightly embarrassing story. By the end of the night she'd spoken to almost everyone in the room. When she was relaxed, she was a social butterfly; charismatic and likable.

Edward watched the woman with interest. If a few glasses of wine is what it took to make her smile like that, maybe he should keep a few bottles in the dorm.

The cold air felt amazing on her hot cheeks as the teens walked down the streets after leaving the party.

Winry was staying in a hotel a few blocks from the dorms. Alphonse told Edward and Alison he was going to escort the other woman to her hotel and would see them back at the dorm.

"I've been doing some research since our last dance lesson." Edward managed to tell his companion. He was thankful that she couldn't see how red his face must have turned when he said that.

"Oh really?" Alison said coyly. "You'll have to show me."

* * *

"You know the moves, but you're too stiff." Alison pointed out. "It should be fluid movement. You're being too methodical."

"It's kind of the only way I know how to be." He grumbled.

"Nonsense. I've seen you and Alphonse spar." She broke away from the stance and retrieved her music. Alphonse had even helped her maintain power on that device as well.

Edward removed his black jacket, it was getting warm and he was getting frustrated. He hadn't been as impressive with his newly learned moves as he'd hoped.

She set up a song and returned to her dance partner. A song started to play; the melody seemed to focus more on the tune played by a trumpet. "This is a pretty old tune back in my world. I've always found I liked it though." Alison told him.

She placed his hands on her hips and wrapped her arms around his neck. It felt like his heart hit his throat before crashing down to his gut. Alison was blissfully unaware, possibly due to her inebriation, of how nervous he seemed to be.

"Just listen to the music and move to the melody." She spoke softly and began to sway her body, showing him how to move until he did the same. "Don't think about it too much." She whispered softly against his collar.

She was either trying to seduce him, or she was horribly unaware of just how provocative she was in that moment. A woman started singing softly.

_Never thought that you would be_

_Standing here so close to me_

_There's so much I feel that I should say_

_But words can wait until some other day_

She placed her head against his chest and he felt her humming to the music as the moved together. Without thinking, he held her closer and nestled his face in her hair. She pulled away to smile at him through half open eyes.

_Kiss me once, then kiss me twice_

_Then kiss me once again_

_It's been a long, long time_

She stared into his golden eyes and an increasingly familiar feeling swirled in her chest and gut. It felt like he was looking into her very soul, and the feeling was something she was beginning to crave. The music played, the melody guiding their bodies to move together. The lyrics seems to blend in to the instrumental until all she could focus on was how his body felt moving with hers.

Alison felt his broad shoulders under her hands, concentrating on where the flesh met metal on his right shoulder. Her fingertips danced along the exposed skin. She felt his hands tighten around her hips and a jolt of electricity shot through her entire body. Her knees buckled unexpectedly. Her eyes widened and she let out a curse as she suddenly lost the ability to stand. She hit the floor and had dragged the poor blonde down with her.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked, concern for her evident in his voice.

"Yeah." She groaned and sat up to come mere inches from the blondes face. "Sorry." She mumbled and blushed. "I don't know what happened."

Their faces were so close together but she couldn't find the will to move. Before she could even process that her own body was moving without her say so, she had reached up, put a hand to the back of the blonde's neck and pulled him towards her until their lips met. By the time her brain registered what she'd done, a warm hand was in her hair, pulling her face closer to Edward's.

It was the most exhilarating thing she'd ever felt, having Edward's lips moving against hers. Her entire body tingled, and she didn't want it to stop.

Unfortunately, it did have to stop. Edward pulled away and stared into her big brown eyes that seemed to see everything within him. A light smile crossed his lips and hers did the same. He helped the woman to her feet but didn't let go of her. He moved to kiss her once again, before the clicking and turning of the lock on the door caught their attention.

Alphonse and Winry burst through the door. The already inebriated Winry entered carrying more wine.

"I never get to see you guys anymore!" She whined. "I'm not ready to turn in!" Alphonse looked like he'd been trying to keep the intoxicated woman under control and shrugged at his brother. "Oh?" Winry seemed to get a good look at the pair standing closely in the room. "Did we interrupt something?" She asked teasingly.

"Is this the wine you brought to the party?" Alison asked suddenly, quickly crossing the room to take a bottle from the blonde woman. "This was some pretty tasty stuff! Let's have some!" She insisted.

The blue-eyed woman seemed too drunk to care if she'd interrupted something now, and was more preoccupied with more drinking.

Alphonse gave his brother a knowing look, and Edward felt his face warming and looked away. Maybe more wine was a good idea.

* * *

"At a young age I was sent to Xing to marry the eldest son of the emperor. I was the youngest daughter, but I was viewed as a treasure to my kingdom. My people were born with golden hair and eyes. It was believed we were blessed by the sun god and given the attributes of the sun. When I was born with silver hair and eyes, they believed I was a blessing bestowed upon my people by the moon goddess, showing we now had her favor as well." Asta told the brunette.

Alison wondered briefly if Edward had some Xerxian ancestry given his hair and eyes.

"I was married at a young age, not long after my first menstruation. My husband was a kind man, a true romantic. It was an arranged marriage but I truly did love him." A look of longing flashed through Asta's silver eyes. "After the birth of our second child, I returned to Xerxes to see my father. He was getting older and I wanted to see him before he succumbed to his age. When we arrived…there were corpses littering the ground. I still remember how my city wreaked of rotting flesh, cooking in the sun." The woman shivered. "My father was dead. My siblings. My people. They were all dead. We came across a lone survivor. My guards demanded he tell them what happened. He…he slaughtered my entire envoy before my very eyes."

She clenched her fists as her body began to shake. "He let me live. I don't know why…but he told me he'd killed my people, that he'd sacrificed them. In a fit of lunacy, I threw myself at his feet, begging him to bring them back, or to let me be with them."

A look came over the princess's face as she remembered the look in the man's eyes. The memory of people she held dear faded over time. She barely recalled what her husband looked like. But she remembered that face.

"He looked at me with this devious smile…I think he saw my purpose immediately. He placed a hand on my head and the next the I remember I woke up alone in the desert. Somehow I made it back to Xing. My handmaids were the ones to discover the markings on my back. My husband tried to talk to me, to get me to tell him what had happened. Eventually we no longer shared a bed. I couldn't sleep, all I could hear were the cries of my people in my head. It's my fault…my husband was so preoccupied with my illness that he didn't even notice the treason right under his nose until we were all slaughtered."

"And you've been bouncing ever since?" Alison questioned. She sat across from the silver haired woman in the moonlight. "So how did he do it? Edward said that the circle on my back resembled a human transmutation circle but with older variations. Do you think he used the souls of an entire kingdom to create a Philosopher's stone?" She asked.

"I don't know. I vaguely remember markings on the palace floor where my father's body was found. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about them. We'll have to go to what used to be Xerxes to get any answers."

"Nope! No, no, no, no! Out of the question!" Alison protested and crossed her arms. "We are gonna probe that brain of yours and you're going to tell me _everything_ and _anything_ you can remember."

After not answering to the first knock, Edward opened the door to Alison's room. Alphonse was still in their room, and Winry was fast asleep on the couch.

"Ali?" He called her name quietly. She was laying on the floor, her face pressed against a journal.

She jumped awake in confusion, mumbling something incoherent before scribbling in the journal.

"What are you doing?" He approached his companion and had her sit up from the floor. Her cheek was streaked with graphite from her writing in the book.

"I have to remember everything she said." Alison rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"What who said?"

"Princess Asta." She mumbled. "She's been in my head since the hospital, but we can only communicate in my dreams." She explained. "I'm serious!" She snapped as Edward looked at her like she was crazy. "Look! I can see her memories, but only the ones she chooses to share, and that goes both ways. I've been collecting information from her about what happened in Xerxes!" Alison held her notebook up for the blonde to see.

He took the journal from her and studied the hastily written notes and arrays. The information in her book, the ancient alchemy drawn on the pages, it was information that even Edward had only come across a handful of times in the State Alchemist Library.

"She's in your head." He repeated slowly. That wasn't exactly something one would hear everyday.

"She's the one who helped me wake up in the hospital. We're trying to piece together what happened. She said there was a man who had somehow used all of the souls of Xerxes to make himself into a living Philosopher's Stone! Ed, he's still out there, he's still alive, and we have to destroy him." The brunette rambled on until Edward pulled her into a tight embrace. "Of all the things that have happened, please don't let this be the thing that makes you think I'm crazy." She whispered against his chest.

"I don't think you're crazy." He told her gently. There was no way she'd know of half of those arrays unless she'd either seen them in the closely guarded library, or she'd somehow seen them in Xerxes herself.

"I can only see her memories of the aftermath. I can't see memories of events that she didn't see." Alison pulled away from the embrace and looked in his amber eyes. "Most of it is incomplete, it's been so long that she's missing bits of information, or there was debris or bodies covering certain parts of the arrays. I need your help filling in the blanks." She pleaded with the blonde.

Edward, finding himself unable to say no, nodded in agreement.

Dammit, he'd honestly come to see her with and actual purpose. He'd barely slept all night, partly from Winry insisting that everyone drank more, and also because he couldn't stop thinking of the moment they'd kissed. He needed to know; did she kiss him because of the alcohol, or had she been acting on pure attraction and feelings toward him? He was afraid to know the answer, but he had to know. But now, here he was, sitting on the floor with the subject of his affection. And instead of asking the questions that ate at him all night, he was promising his assistance in research.

* * *

Winry woke to find the couch, that still had her on it, had been moved. As had the other furniture. In the middle of the room Edward, Alphonse, and Alison were hovering over papers and writings on the hardwood floor.

"What are you guys doing?" Winry yawned.

"But this symbol here, is different from what's on your back." Edward pointed to a spot on the floor.

"The one on my back is a symbol of binding, it's what's used to tether her soul to mine, and to the soul of any other vessel she inhabits." Alison explained.

"It's less of an anchor, like my seal, and more of a…" Alphonse tried to think of the right word.

"Like a string tying things together." Edward finished.

"Yeah!" Al agreed.

"Does that mean the string could be cut?" Alison asked.

At this point Winry just watched the three on the floor, unbothered by being ignored.

"Theoretically, but we can't be sure what that would do to you." Edward told her.

"Until we find the missing parts, we can't be sure of exactly what this man in Xerxes did or how he did it." Alphonse mused staring at the missing blocks of the circle.

"She didn't show you anything else?" Edward asked the brunette.

"I can only see what she saw. She didn't move any of the corpses, she didn't even see the entire circle, she was far too in shock." Alison shook her head. "I can't even be sure that everything she's shown me in her memory is accurate. It's still a memory, and the human mind can still alter things about memories. They aren't set in stone in our own minds."

A look crossed her face, and whatever idea she'd had she didn't seem happy about it. As hard as she tried to avoid that option, Asta may have been right.

"What is it?" Edward asked.

"I…I think I have to go to Xerxes."

* * *

"We'll come with you." Edward argued with the brunette.

"No, you're both needed here." Alison countered. "Asta said that whoever, or rather, whatever did that to Xerxes, has done it since. She said he's still alive and he's in this country."

"That would make him hundreds of years old!" Alphonse claimed.

"Exactly! He isn't human! You two have to stay in this country and keep your eyes and ears open. If he really is here, he's probably already planning something again."

"You were almost killed a week ago, and now you want to just fuck off to the desert alone?!" Edward nearly shouted. Despite his clear frustration bordering on anger, she looked at him with soft eyes.

"I don't have much of a choice. I'm obligated at this point." She stepped closer to him and took his left hand in hers. "I promise, I _will_ come back." She stared into eyes and he found he couldn't argue.

A few days later the four found themselves at the train station.

"This train will stop in Youswell. The people there know us. I've already made arrangements with them. You'll be taken care of before you leave for the ruins." Edward told her.

He was obviously still unhappy about the situation, but if it was happening regardless, the least he could do was pull what strings he had to make sure she was safe.

"Thanks, Ed." Alison smiled at the blonde. "Don't worry too much, guys. I'll be okay." She grinned at the brothers and Winry.

"Just…" Ed let out a sigh and plopped a hand on her shoulder. "Don't die."

"Eh, I plan to live forever. So far, so good." She smirked and Edward couldn't help but chuckle.

The man on one of the train cars began to yell, telling everyone it was time to board the train.

"I'll keep in touch as best I can." She told the blonde. She turned and started walking to the train. Alison stopped suddenly and turned back towards Ed.

"I almost forgot." She stepped closer to him and spoke low. "The thing that happened a few nights ago," She started.

The way his face turned red told her he remembered. She gently grabbed his face, stood up on the tips of her toes and planted a kiss on his lips. His eyes widened before he closed them and his hands found her waist. She pulled back and grinned.

"We should do that again sometime." She winked, and with that she had drifted from his reach and boarded the train.

Edward watched her disappear onto the train and sighed. He turned around, suddenly remembering his brother and Winry were there, and had seen the whole thing. The two were giggling to themselves and Edward felt his face turn red.

The brothers returned to their dorm, it seeming much emptier now. Ed went to his room and his eyes caught something on the table by his bed. It was Alison's, mp3 player is what she called it. With the accessories to listen to music through the speaker or the ear buds. Under it was a note.

_So you can practice your dance moves until I get back._

_-Ali_

A light feeling fluttered in his chest. He found himself look forward to their next lesson. He desperately wished he could go with her, but he had to trust the woman to take care of herself. Not exactly an easy thing to do, given recent events. However, he supposed he didn't have much room to judge.

Alphonse left the room to accompany Winry to dinner. Edward stayed behind and flopped on his bed and stuck a bud in each ear. When he saw her again, he'd have to ask who Clint Eastwood was. The song named after him didn't seem to go over that. He also made a note to ask about these musician names. Why would a group of musicians name themselves after primates? Indeed, he may have a few things to say to her the next time they met.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hello, I'm looking for Mr. Halling." Alison approached a tall man behind the counter at the Inn.

"Hm?" The man turned around to peer at the woman talking to him. "You must be the Elrics' friend!" His voice boomed over the crowd in the room.

"Ah, yes. I'm Alison." She introduced as she shook his hand.

"Let's get you settled in your room and we'll get you something to eat!"

* * *

"Okay, so you add some gin, lemon juice, some…oh, what do you guys call it here?" Alison popped open a bottle to sniff. "That's it. Mix." Alison shook the drink mixer and poured it over some ice. "Add seltzer, and voila!" She handed Halling the drink. "I present to you, a Tom Collins!"

"This is amazing!" The man said after taking a drink.

He then proceeded to down the rest of it. What had turned into a simple question of what alcoholic beverages were available, turned in to Alison teaching a mixology course of some drinks from her world. She was fairly familiar with it; when she would stay with her grandparents her grandfather would teach her how to make a drink and they'd share the result. She'd attracted quite a crowd of locals in the pub area of the inn.

Alison stepped outside to get some fresh air. Her body felt warm from the alcohol. She had also had a few of the cocktails she'd been making.

A familiar ache surfaced in her chest as she looked at the moon. She had become familiar with the feeling ever since she'd come to this world. She missed her home. But it was different this time. Her chest hurt because she missed the Elrics. She was sure there were a few things she'd need to address about that, mainly feeling she missed the brothers now more than her home. But for now, she was going to bury that deep down and enjoy the cold breeze on her face.

"Excuse me, miss." A man's voice said from behind her. "Did I overhear earlier that you know the Elric brothers?"

Alison turned around to me met with an older man with long blonde hair, blonde facial hair, golden eyes, and glasses. Alison felt her entire body run cold. She knew that face. This was the man that had killed all of Xerxes. She nearly fell to the ground trying to back away from the man.

"Shit, Asta did not prepare me to meet him this soon!" She said aloud to herself.

"Asta?" The man questioned and stepped closer.

Alison took another step back.

"Don't come any closer you monster!" She growled. She really didn't want to grab the attention of those inside. If this man was really as dangerous as she'd been told, she didn't want them getting killed.

"Please, listen to me!" He held his hands up defensively and took a step back. Weirdest case of déjà vu. "I know who you think I am, and I am not him!"

"Then why do you look like him?" She seethed out.

"It's a long story. I can tell it to you, but you must trust that I mean no harm to you, or the princess."

Alison stiffened. She knew she'd said the name aloud. But for him to know who Asta was, was a whole new set of flags being thrown up.

"How do you know about her?"

"I think the better question is, how do you? And why and how she was preparing you to face off with that Homunculus."

"That…is also a long story." She murmured. "Why are you asking about the Elrics?" She narrowed her eyes.

"They…are my sons." He told her.

"I'm sorry…but if you know who Asta and the Father Homunculus is, who also happens to look _exactly_ like you, then reasoning would put you at a few hundred years old. But you're also telling me that you're the father of two teenagers." She said incredulously. "Actually," she sighed. "That isn't even the craziest thing I've heard since coming here." She mumbled and relaxed her stance a bit.

"Everything okay out here?" Halling stepped out and eyes and blonde stranger.

"Everything is fine, thanks!" Alison smiled. "Just catching up with an old friend! He snuck up on me!" She laughed. "How ya been, you old bastard?" She asked the blonde in front of her with laugh.

Halling nodded and returned inside.

"Okay, this is what's going to happen." Alison's demeanor turned serious again. "We're going to go inside, I'm going to have a few drinks, and you're going to tell me everything. Got it?" She growled.

"You're a bossy one." The man chuckled.

* * *

"I had to leave my family behind. I was determined to stop the father Homunculus before he did to this country what he did to Xerexes." Hohenheim told his story to the young brunette.

"Have you ever heard of anyone ever travelling from the other side of the Gate?"

"Can't say that I have." He looked at her with new interest. "Why?"

"Long story short, I'm from that other side. How I was brought here, no clue. As to why, I can only imagine it was because of my ties to Asta." She sighed. "The only way for me to get back, that we can come up with anyway, is to somehow get back to the gate. But considering the only way it seems to do that is to perform human transmutation, it leaves me…as they say in my world, boned."

"What brings you this far out east?" He asked.

"Xerxes." She stated simply and then an idea seemed to come to her. "Hold on." She suddenly stood up and walked out of the in.

When she returned she flopped a journal and pen down in front of him.

"I need you to give me all the information you can about what happened in Xerxes and your part in it, including a detailed replication of the array used." She demanded.

"Is the term 'please' not used in your world?" Hohenheim grumbled as he picked up the writing supplies.

"Politeness went out the window when you doomed an entire race because a magic sentient black mist in a bottle took you for a ride." She hissed out.

"Now listen here-!" He started.

"No, you listen!" She cut him off. "I understand mistakes. I understand mistakes on a global fucking scale. But you let your mistake grow legs and continue to kill countless people, and it wasn't until _your_ self interests, being your family, was put in danger, that you decided to do something about it! We both know he killed more than just Asta's envoy after Xerxes. And now this country, including your sons, are in danger because of, and I can't stress this enough, _your fucking mistake_." She hissed and aggressively poked at the table.

"And I'm _also_ here, plucked from my fucking world and thrown into this one, because of that mistake. So the very, and I mean _very_ least you could do, is give me the information I want." Alison knew very well she was being an asshole. But she didn't care. The literal root of the problem was sitting across from her.

"I'm sorry." He spoke softly. "I know I should have attempted to correct my mistake as soon as it was made. I was naïve, and because of me, I couldn't be there when the woman I loved died, and I left my sons orphans. I'll give you the information you need."

Alison let out a frustrated sigh and walked away to get more drinks. When she returned, she passed it in his direction and flopped down in the seat.

* * *

"This was left behind when Yoki and his goons were ran out of town. It runs pretty good. You're welcome to it." Halling told Alison as he showed her an open top army vehicle. "It handles well in the desert, too. Should get you where you're going pretty quick."

"Are you sure?" Alison asked, inspecting the vehicle.

"We owe those brothers a lot. So if we can help them in any way, by helping you, you have our assistance."

* * *

While with Hohenheim's help, the trip to Xerxes was no long necessary, Asta had been insistent. She really just wanted to see her old home, and Alison couldn't find it in her to tell the princess no.

She set up camp within the walls of one of the ruined structures. With the light of her campfire she studied her own notes, Hohenheim's, and a map of the country. She'd heard the brothers speak of the Ishvallan massacre. She'd also read in a newspaper recently about an uprising in a town called Liore.

Both instances the military was called in. That wasn't the strange part; it's not like the military hadn't gotten involved in uprisings in her own country. But it seemed as though things in both situations didn't get out of hand _until_ the military got involved. Still, not exactly unheard of. But both Hohenheim and Asta believed if this Father Homunculus was trying to gain more power through a Philosopher's stone, it would be where there was bloodshed.

* * *

Spring was slowly emerging from the winter cold. Alison has been gone for months. The brothers would get letters from her every couple of weeks or so. For reasons she didn't go into, after Xerxes she'd headed to Liore, then what was left of Ishval for awhile. After the Ishval letters, the brothers stopped hearing from her all together. That had been about six weeks ago.

Edward tried to not let his worry for the woman affect his research and his work. Still, he found himself scanning crowds for the woman and regularly checking for word from her. He could never be sure where or when she'd resurface. He just hoped she wasn't in any danger, or worse. At first Alphonse teased his brother for obviously missing the woman who'd stolen his first kiss. Perhaps stealing wasn't the proper phrase. He gladly handed it over to her. But when the letters stopped coming, Al stopped teasing. Now he was worried as well.

* * *

The brunette woman sat in the corner of a bar in a random town she'd stopped in. Alison needed a place she could work in peace, and a dive bar in the middle of the day seemed like a good place.

A waitress approached her when her drink was empty. She had been so deep in her journal she didn't notice the woman approach or see her peering at her work. Alison slammed the book shut as soon as she noticed. The waitress gave her a strange look, took her glass, and walked away.

"Shit." She muttered to herself and began hastily packing up her things.

She left some cash on the table and made a bee line to the door. Before she could make it two large men stepped in front of the exit, effectively blocking her escape. Alison cleared her throat.

"Is there something I could do for you gentlemen?" She asked with a nervous smile. Another man came from behind and yanked her bag off her back. "Hey!"

She spun around and reached for it, but she was pushed away and into the arms of the⁸ other men who held her still. The thief rummaged through her bag and pulled out one of her many journals. He dropped the bag to the floor and thumbed through the book. He looked at the other men and nodded.

"We're going to need you to come with us. You may be of interest to our boss." One of the men holding her said.

"Any way we could, ya know, _not_ do that?" She quipped with a nervous grin. "Yep, okay." She grunted as they picked her up by her arms and dragged her through the bar and towards the back and to the basement.

She was practically tossed to the floor in a back room. She looked up to see a man with black spikey hair sitting on a couch with two scantily clad women. Her bag was tossed on the table in front of the man, its contents spilling out.

"Hey, careful with that!" She barked at the men.

They gave her a menacing glare and she made a mocking face back. What were they gonna do? Kill her? She'd at least done enough alchemy and fighting training in the past several months to at least make it out alive. She also didn't appreciate being handled like a sack of flour.

"Hmm…an alchemist." The man on the couch mused aloud, bringing the brunette's attention to him. He was flipping through one of her journals. "And a taboo one at that. Now what might you be doing with all this information on human transmutation?" He asked with a sly smirk.

"That's none of your business!" She pulled herself up to her feet. "Now give that-" She stopped dead when she noticed the tattoo on his hand. She'd seen that before. "You're one of them… Is that why you wanted me? So you could take me back to your Father?" She snarled and took a defensive stance. She was taken off guard by the Homunculus's laughter.

"Please, I have no interest in whatever they might be scheming. We don't really talk much, ya see. The name's Greed, kid, and I do whatever and take whatever I want." He smirked.

"Oh, cool. So, can I go?" She asked and thumbed towards the door.

"Not exactly. You've piqued my interest." He sat forward and rested his chin in his hand. "Why is dear old dad interested in a kid like you?" His smirk widened.

"Oh, ya know. I…owe him some money." Alison shrugged, and cursed herself for opening her mouth.

"Cute." He made a motion to the men behind her and they locked and blocked the door.

"God dammit!" She groaned.

* * *

"Boss!" Someone was banging at the door. One of the goons opened the door and another ran in. "Bido found 'em!" The man grinned.

"Perfect." Greed smirked. "I fold, kid." Greed threw his cards down and stood up.

"Good for me, I guess." Alison murmured under her breath. He'd had a better hand for sure. She gathered up the cards and started to shuffle. She was teaching Greed the game of Texas Hold'Em and the Homunculus found he quite enjoyed the new game. "So, it's been fun and all, but I really should get going."

"Sit tight, kid. I have some errands to run. I might need your insight in a bit." Greed said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

That didn't sound good for her. Her lack of options were emphasized by one of the henchmen blocking the door and glowering at her with crossed arms. She sighed heavily and flopped back down on the couch.

"Wanna play?" She shook the deck of cards at the henchman guarding the door.

* * *

There was a lot yelling coming from somewhere else in the building.

"What's going on out there?" She asked the henchman whose name she learned was Paul.

"Don't worry about it kid. It's none of your concern." Paul replied and threw down his cards. "Full house!"

"Straight flush." She laid down her cards, no longer interested in the game, but what was going on out there. It was then that she heard an all too familiar, young voice cut through the other voices.

"Paul, buddy, I hate to tell you this, but I'm gonna need out there." Alison stood and stretched. "And if you don't let me out, I'll have to force my way through."

The large man bellowed with laughter. "You're funny, kid." The man didn't even look up from the cards he was gathering up.

"And here I thought I'd made a few new friends. Turns out I just got new pains in my ass." She grumbled.

* * *

"Well, that wasn't as traumatizing as it should have been. Have to reevaluate _that_ later." Alison mumbled as she watched Greed literally regrow a head.

"Alison!" Alphonse called her name in both surprise and relief.

"How'd you get in here, kid? Where's Paul?" Greed scowled.

"He's in time out. So, is there a reason you're kidnapping kids in town?" She inquired, gesturing to the suit of armor chained up on the floor. Greed growled and looked at one of the men in the room. She'd overheard him call this man a chimera mixed with a cow.

"Sic him on me and I'll turn that bull into a steer." Alison growled.

Greed laughed.

"I like you, kid. Really." The homunculus smirked. "And under different circumstances I might keep you around. But your obstinate attitude is really grinding my nerves. I'm going to give you the opportunity to turn around and leave, and never come back."

"Sure. But he's coming with me." She pointed at Alphonse.

She did her best to act cool, but she was scared shitless and she hoped none of these chimeras could sense fear.

Her dad taught her to defend herself. And even Asta had taught her some fighting styles she'd learned in Xing. In recent months she'd learned to access the information from the Gate within herself. This allowed her to add alchemy to the mix. However, she'd never put any of these techniques to the test. Not yet, anyways.

The door behind her swung open and another…man?...Chimera? Was thrown at her feet. She turned around to see Edward standing in the doorway, looking very irritated.

Now was _not_ the time for her stomach to be doing flips. Being in the same room together after so long made her heard skip. She tried to shake the feeling away. Alphonse was literally being held hostage and her first thought upon seeing Edward was how much she missed those eyes.

"Sup?" She said to the blonde, coolly. She screamed internally. Sup? _Really?_ Five months away and the first thing to come out of her mouth was _sup?!_

"Ali? What are you doing here?" He asked, seemingly more irritable than before.

"Kind of deviated from the original reason, but now I'm trying to find out why this band of misfits is kidnapping kids in town." She thumbed the group.

"We did _not_ kidnap you!" The one crossed with a dog yelled.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I guess literally dragging me down to a basement and locking me up gave off the wrong impression!" She yelled back.

"What do you want with us?" Ed's voice cut through.

"Well, you two seem pretty desperate to get your bodies back. I can tell you how to make a Homunculus body of your own, if you tell me how you attached that soul to armor. Though, I don't know why you'd want to, it seems to me he's already got the perfect body! He doesn't have to eat, sleep, or even use the toilet!" Greed spoke to the brothers.

Alison watched Edward's facial expressions change to one she'd never seen before.

"You shut your dammed mouth!" The blonde yelled. "You have no idea what he's had to go through in that body! You kidnap my brother then you want to swap secrets with me?! No chance!" It was clear from everyone's faces that they weren't expecting the threats spewing from the alchemist.

"Guess we're doing this by force." The canine chimera approached with a sword.

"Don't kill him, alright?" Greed instructed.

"Yeah, yeah." He replied dismissively. Before he could fully draw his sword, Edward had jumped and kicked him in the face, and to the ground.

"Roa, take the armored kid out of here and we'll dismantle him." The bovine chimera nodded and hoisted Al up and ran out of the room. Greed made an attack at Edward to prevent him from chasing after.

"Dolcetto, grab the girl, too!" Roa called to the canine chimera.

Dolcetto lunged toward the woman. Ali let out a yelp and swiped her hand. As she did this, the tell-tale sparks of a transmutation centered on a spot on the wall next to her, followed by that spot shooting out and knocking Dolcetto in the gut and to the floor.

"Can these kids hit someone else now, please?" The chimera wheezed, now having been assaulted by all three teens.

Edward, catching the unusual display, gave the brunette woman a curious look.

"Later." She said, promising to explain what just happened when they weren't in danger. "I'm going after Al!" She hollered to him. The blonde nodded in affirmation before taking the Homunculus to the ground.

She followed after Al's abductors into what appeared to be a series of tunnels. She lost sight of them as they took a turn down another tunnel. Before she could make the same turn, she had to throw herself against a different corner as she heard several sets of footsteps coming from a different direction. It was difficult to determine which way the sounds were coming from when they echoed all over the tunnels.

A small infantry came around a corner and past her, and past the tunnel Alphonse had been taken. As she waited for the coast to clear, Alison felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She looked behind her, but before she could see who or what may be there, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck, and things went dark.

Bradley caught the woman as she slumped forward. He carefully lowered her to the floor. After situating her against the wall but out of the way, he followed after the younger Elric and his abductors.

* * *

Alison opened her eyes and squinted to adjust to the dim light of the tunnels. The last thing she remembered was running after…

"Alphonse!" She gasped and jumped to her feet. She ran off in the direction she'd last seen him go. "Alphonse!" She yelled his name down the tunnels.

She ran until she saw the suit of armor on the ground. She approached the armor and felt her stomach bottom out when she saw blood pouring out of the armor.

"Al! Alphonse!" She called his name and tapped aggressively on the helmet. "Wake up! Or come back! Or whatever you have to do just don't fucking die!" Tears streamed down her face.

She yanked off the helmet to check his seal. She was relieved to see it seemingly intact but what she saw past that made her drop the helmet. It clattered at her feet as she stepped back, her hands covering her mouth.

"Al!" Edward's voice and footsteps and could be heard quickly approaching. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the horrified look on Ali's face. "What is it? Where did that blood come from?" He asked hesitantly. When she didn't answer he began to yell. "Dammit, what is it?!"

He rushed to the armor and looked inside. Inside the armor was the corpse of a woman.

Watching the others pull Marta's corpse out of Al's armor had been unsettling. Luckily, she was already out before Al came-to. Though, the trail of blood spilling from Al's casing to the body under the white sheet was still a sight that was hard for the younger teen to see.

The bodies of Greed's gang were found throughout the tunnels, however, there was no sign of Greed.

Edward spoke worriedly to his brother when he regained consciousness. The two were surrounded by military men that had raided the tunnels. Alison watched them from a distance. They needed to be with one another. On the bright side, she discovered she still had the ability to be traumatized.

This wasn't the way she wanted to reunite with the brothers.

The soldiers suddenly stood at attention as an older man with dark hair and an eye patch approached. She heard Alphonse refer to him as King Bradley. It became apparent that he was the leader of Amestris.

An unnerving feeling settled over Ali. She noticed it first when she met the three homunculi in Central, but brushed it off. Then she felt it again when she met Greed. Now as she stood in the presence of this man, she felt it again. The feeling made her skin crawl, like being in the presence of evil. She watched the man carefully. Four out of five things that gave her those bad vibes were proven homunculi. Could he be as well?

The way he spoke to the brothers, the way he threatened them, that mixed with the aura he gave off made her feel sick.

"And what about you?" He directed his questioning to Alison. "Did you make any kind of dealings or share any information with the one known as Greed?"

"The guy essentially kidnapped me." She stated dryly. "The only info I gave him was teaching him a new card game. Figured keeping him entertained would save my skin."

Bradley turned towards the brothers.

"I am curious to know about your steel arm and leg, and your brother's armored body. Is there any connection between the two?"

The brothers visibly stiffened under the older man's cold gaze. The man chuckled.

"You really are an honest kid." He said and walked away, instructing his men to follow.

* * *

Alison quietly sat inside the home of Izumi Curtis, the former teacher of the Elrics. Coincidentally, the brothers had been visiting their old mentor during the same time she'd been passing through Dublith. King Bradley was speaking alone with Izumi while the brothers and Major Armstrong were outside. Edward was washing the blood from Al's armor.

Alison was relieved she was allowed to retrieve her bag, and that no one asked to go through it. If they found her notes of human transmutation, she could be thrown in a prison cell. She'd need to think of a way to encrypt her notes.

The sound of Bradley leaving Izumi's room caught Ali's attention. She watched closely as he walked to the door. He stopped just short of the exit.

"Is there something you'd like to say, miss?" His voice had an edge to it.

"Yeah. You ever wanna learn how to play Hold'Em, you know where to find me." She said coolly. The man chuckled.

"I might take you up on that." He turned to smile at her, but the bite never left his voice. With that, he left the Curtis household.

She glowered at the door.

"Alison." A gruff voice spoke from the other side of the room. She looked to see Sig Curtis. "Izumi wants to speak with you."

Alison let out a tired sigh and followed the large man. He showed her to a room where Izumi was resting in bed. He shut the door behind her, leaving the two women alone.

"I've heard quite a bit about you." She spoke softly.

"The important stuff, I'm sure." She replied. The woman nodded.

"Your story is an interesting one. Almost unbelievable." She cut her eyes at the brunette.

"So I've been told."

"I want to see it." Izumi demanded. Alison stared at her for a moment before turning around and lifting her shirt. "Come closer."

Ali did as she was instructed.

Izumi closely examined the array on her back. "Edward said you transmuted without an array or clapping your hands earlier. Tell me, how did you do that?"

"Don't really need an array when you have a Philosopher's stone."

"You have a Philosopher's stone?"

"I _am_ a Philosopher's stone." Alison pulled her shirt down and turned to meet the women's gaze. "My physical being is just a casing for the stone. I can use its power at will, outside the confines of a circle."

"How do you know this?" Izumi questioned.

"The consciousness of a dead princess and all the souls attached to her live in my head. Collaboration with her and another in a similar position as me, helped me come to the conclusion." Alison spoke evenly. At this point it was like stating the weather outside.

"My, you've certainly been through a lot, haven't you?" Izumi's voice softened and it seemed to hit Alison right in the chest.

"Considering half a year ago I was just a regular high school student…you could say that." She murmured.

"You understand, if you continue to travel with those boys, it will only become more dangerous for you." She warned, though gently.

"Things for me are going to be dangerous regardless. If anything, it might be more dangerous for them to be around me." Alison murmured. "If you're going to ask me not to stay with them-"

"I've renounced them as my students. I no longer have the authority to tell them what to do." Izumi cut her off. "Besides, it's not like they would listen. Even without you being around it was obvious the boys cared for you." She smiled. "Just be careful out there. Now, if you don't mind, I need to rest."

"Thank you, Miss Izumi." Alison smiled gently and left the room.

* * *

Everyone had gone to bed. The Curtis', having a couple of spare rooms, fixed another up for Ali to sleep in. Unable to sleep, she found herself on the back stoop, watching a stray cat eat out of a bowl that Alphonse had undoubtedly put there.

The sound of soft, yet mismatched steps caught her ear as they tread through the house, so she wasn't surprised when the screen door opened and Edward came to sit beside her.

"Can't sleep?" She asked.

"Something like that." The blonde sighed.

"How is Al?"

"Oddly, better than expected. He's upset he couldn't save her. But he was able to get his memories from the Gate back. That's apparently where he went when he didn't respond before." Edward told her.

"He lost his memories?" She questioned. She really had missed a lot.

"He couldn't remember things from the transmutation." He explained.

"What about you? It looked like you'd gotten hurt, too."

"I've had worse." He shrugged. That answer made the brunette frown, the reality of that answer knocking her in the chest.

"We were starting to worry about you." Edward said suddenly. "We hadn't heard from you in weeks."

"Yeah, well, not a lot of post offices in Ishval." She murmured.

A small smile graced his lips. He'd missed her humor. He'd missed _her._

"It's kind of funny." She spoke. "I was on my own twice as long as I was with you two. But I missed you like I'd been around my entire life." She chuckled.

"We have that affect on people." He smirked.

She laughed softly and nudged him with her shoulder.

"I guess I need to keep that to myself next time. Seems to stroke that ego of yours." She smirked.

The two teens smiled at each other before falling into a comfortable silence.

Ali looked to the moon. It was full and bright. Something about the bright yet pale light it cast was comforting.

She felt her heart flip in her chest when a warm hand pressed against her own before gently sliding over hers. She wrapped her hand around Edward's and hoped, despite the bright moon, he couldn't see the blush that dusted her face.

"I, uh…" Edward started, clearing his throat and speaking softly. "I missed you, too."

The brunette turned towards the blonde, to find him looking right at her. If she could see the color changing in his face, she knew he could see it in hers. Still, a stupid smile broke from her lips and she found herself squeezing his hand gently.

It almost felt like she'd been punched in the gut, yet, in the most delightful of ways, when he moved closer to her. Her eyes flitted closed and her chest burned when he brushed his lips against hers. Her free hand touched his neck gently, her thumb swiping down his jawline. He pressed deeper against her. His metal hand came to rest on her thigh about the time she opened her mouth to further the kiss. The two pulled each other closer, unable to get enough of the physical contact. It was nice to know that five months hadn't dulled that fire within them.

Edward's hand left hers and his arm wrapped around her waist to pull her as close as he could without nearly pulling the woman on to his lap. Ali's newly freed hand found his chest. She felt the hard muscles underneath the long sleeved shirt he wore. Her fingers seemed as though they wanted to search every inch of that hard chest.

The two immediately broke away when a chill ran up their spines and an angry aura cut through the moment like an axe.

Directly behind them stood Izumi Curtis, a scowl on her face, and arms crossed.

"BOTH OF YOU!" She bellowed. "SEPARATE ROOMS! NOW!"

The teens wasted no times scurrying past her and to their respective rooms like mice running from a hungry cat.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, the trio found themselves in Rush Valley. Edward needed some repairs done to his automail after his fight with Greed.

"Have you two even made any progress?" Winry huffed while doing a quick patch job.

"Actually, yeah. It's slow, but it's progress." Al replied. "Oh! And we found Alison in Dublith!"

"Really? Where is she?" Winry asked. "I haven't seen her since…" She looked at Edward with a teasing grin. The alchemist, lying on his back while being worked on, quickly turned away. However that didn't hide his reddening ears from his mechanic.

"Teacher caught them at it last night!" Alphonse whispered.

"Shut your mouth, Al!" Ed snapped at his brother. Al and Winry had a good laugh at the flustered teen.

"She's wandering somewhere around here." Al finally answered Winry's question.

Winry took note of the strange look in Edward's eyes, but didn't mention anything. Her friend looked worried.

* * *

"What are you guys doing?" Alison approached the table full of dirty dishes the brothers were sitting at. She eyed the other man at the table and scowled. "Oh. It's you. Why are _you_ here?"

"If it isn't the nice lady from Meox!" The foreign man smiled at her.

"You didn't feed him, did you?" She turned to the brothers. "Guy likes to pretend he's a breath away from dying so you'll pity him, then racks up an unbelievable food bill."

"You wound me!" He seemed offended.

"Ling, wasn't it? Where's your cronies?"

"Oh, they're around." He grinned. "I was just speaking to your friends here. I had no idea you were friends with a State Alchemist." She narrowed her eyes at the man. "I was just going to see if they knew anything about the Philosopher's stone."

The brothers visibly tensed. Ling found this reaction quite interesting.

"Sorry we can't help you." Edward stated and began to walk away.

"You wouldn't be lying, would you?" Ling grinned. With a snap of his fingers, Edward had a blade to his throat, and one under Al's arm poised into the armor.

"Oh, there you are." Alison said with a frown. "You really should find a better way to ask people for information."

Alison flicked her wrist and sparks flared on the ground before a large, stone fist emerged from the ground and toward the one near Alphonse away. The masked fighter jumped out of the way before the stone made contact.

Edward took the opportunity to make a move toward the other assailant.

"That's a neat trick." Ling grinned at the woman. "Mind showing me how you did it?"

"Sure. Just as soon as you pay me back for all that food you ate in Meox."

"Maybe we can work out some other arrangement?"

The two masked fighters circled Alison.

"She doesn't know anything!" Edward yelled at the man. "Your fight is with us!" He lunged toward his opponent from before.

Within moments the brothers were off fighting the two. Alison was impressed with how quickly they moved.

"Have a seat, I have a proposition for you." Ling motioned to one of the now empty chairs.

"No thanks. And if your minions hurt them, there is no Philosopher's stone on this earth that will save you from me." She shot the foreigner a deadly gaze.

"You know, I wasn't so sure before, but now I'm certain. You have a very interesting chi coming from you."

"Bite me, prince." She hissed before walking away.

"You aren't going to wait to see who wins?"

Ali ignored Ling and continued walking. Edward was bound to damage his arm further, and she was going to give Winry a bit of a heads up.

The prince smirked.

"You will all tell me what I want to know, eventually." He spoke to himself.

* * *

It was worse than she thought, and what was worse, Winry was nowhere to be found, so she couldn't be warned. The brothers showed back up to Mr. Garfiel's, and Edward had what was left of his automail arm slung over his left shoulder.

Ling was currently sitting at a table with the shop's owner and enjoying a cup of tea. The Elrics were, predictably, unhappy to see him.

After Edward had been assaulted by Winry, she repaired his arm. It was later decided she'd travel with them to Central.

* * *

Winry dropped her things off at her hotel before following the rest of the group while they did the same at the dormitories. As they were leaving the dorms, Edward watched as Alphonse and Winry walked ahead of them, deep in conversation. Alison walked slightly behind Edward, seemingly in deep thought. When Al and Winry rounded a corner, Edward spied a utility closet.

"Do you think Mustang would burn some incriminating stuff for me?" Ali asked absently.

Edward grabbed Alison by the arm and pulled her into the dark closet with him.

"Um…" Alison started, not knowing what was happening but realizing she was eager to find out.

"What's going on? You've been acting weird since Dublith." Edward demanded.

She would admit she was slightly disappointed it wasn't going where she had thought.

"Excuse me, but I always act weird." She scoffed. Despite the dark she knew he was rolling his eyes.

"You know what I mean!"

"Isn't there somewhere else we could have this conversation?"

"I suspect some things you might have to say, you wouldn't want overheard. And I can't guarantee that someone won't be listening."

"Like the room is bugged?" She questioned.

"I wouldn't put it past the military. Especially after what happened in Dublith." He replied.

"Fine." She sighed in defeat. "But…I have a feeling you aren't going to like what I have to say."

"I was afraid of that." He mumbled.

Only Edward Elric wouldn't realize how problematic being so close together in a dark closet could be when there was some sort of research to be done.

"So…guess I should start with Youswell, where I kind of sort of….maybe met your dad." She told him.

The small room grew incredibly quiet.

"Ed?" Alison prodded when he didn't say anything. His response was to wordlessly walk out of the closet and continue down the hall. "Ed!" She exited the closet and called after him. "Ugh!" She groaned in frustration.

"Lover's quarrel?" The voice of Ling Yao came from behind her.

"Don't you have people looking for you?" She snapped.

"I like to keep them on their toes." He smiled.

Alison rolled her eyes and followed after Edward. She stepped out of the dorms to find her friends gone.

"You fucking ask me, then act weird when I give you the truth." She grumbled under her breath.

Alphonse and Winry probably went ahead to the Hughes home. There was no telling where Edward was; he could be on his way there as well, or off literally anywhere else. She sat down on the dormitory steps and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Edward sure is moody." Ling commented as he sat down next to her. "What do you see in him?" He asked, earning a glare from the woman. "I'm a prince, you know."

"You just love pushing buttons, don't you?" She knew the man wasn't truly after her affections; he had his sights on something bigger.

"When you have over forty siblings it becomes a way of life."

"I have an older brother. I guess on a smaller scale, I can relate." She shrugged and propped her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her hands.

"So, what were you two doing alone in a closet?" Ling ribbed.

"If we wanted you to know, you would've been invited." She smirked.

"It's none of your business." Edward's voice came from behind. The two turned around to see Edward standing in front of the door. He watched Ling with a look in his eye that Ali had never seen before.

"I'm sorry for running off." He turned his attention to Ali, his expression changing. "Can we take a walk and continue our conversation?" His eyes shifted to Ling. " _Alone._ "

Ali just smiled and extended her hand to the blonde. His cheeks turned a shade of pink when she held her hand out to him. He'd already kissed the woman, but still the idea of holding her hand made his mouth dry. He cleared his throat, avoided eye contact with Ling, and took her hand. Together, the two walked down the street, leaving Ling on the steps.

"Why did you leave so suddenly?" She asked the blonde when they were alone, sitting together on a park bench. Their hands still clasped together.

"I just needed a minute to think. Hearing you ran into my father of all people…" He murmured. "I'm sorry."

"What was that look you gave Ling earlier?" She questioned suddenly.

"What look?" Ed pretended to not know what she meant.

"When we were sitting together on those steps. You looked like you wanted to strangle him." She chuckled.

"He's just annoying is all." Edward told her. She watched the alchemist as he twitched and brooded. Something was bothering him.

"Were you jealous?" She whispered. He instantly tensed. He was an absolutely terrible liar. But the poor guy honestly seemed embarrassed that he even felt it at all.

"You kissed me, then left for five months." Edward began quietly. "It's embarrassing to say, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. And part of me was worried that when you came back after being gone so long, you wouldn't feel the same towards me anymore. Maybe you met someone else. Maybe you decided you were just interested because I was there. Maybe once you got away from the train wreck that was Al and I…. After all, it would be crazy to believe you'd just fall for the first guy you met in this world."

Edward laying out his insecurities so plainly was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. He trusted her enough to tell her these things without fear of judgement, but the fact that he felt that way in the first place made her chest tighten.

"I had no idea that kiss made such things weigh on your mind so much." She murmured. "I couldn't stop thinking about that kiss, either. Or you, for that matter."

Edward finally looked at her, his cheeks burning, but he saw that hers were too.

"I'm not good at this sort of thing." Alison sighed. "It's normal for teenagers my age back home to go on dates and have a boyfriend or girlfriend. But I could never get into all of that. Trying to date anyone felt like putting a left shoe on my right foot. Then I came here, and…I don't know…you seemed to just…fit." She shrugged while staring at the ground. "That probably sounds really dumb." She laughed it off nervously.

"It makes sense to me." He smiled, a weight seeming to leave his chest. They were, at the very least, able to put into words that they cared for each other in a deeper manner than just friendship.

The way he was looking at her, it made her stomach do somersaults and the rest of her body tingle. She leaned in close, wanting to kiss him.

"Hey, you two!" A loud voice behind them made the teens nearly jump out of their skins. "What are you doing out here?"

"Son of a bitch" Edward muttered under his breath.

God dammit! Could they not have just _one_ moment alone without being interrupted by someone?! It was like it was turning in to a bad running joke; oh, there's Edward and Alison about to kiss, better go ruin that moment!

"Sergeant Brosh, nice to see you." Edward said through a forced smile. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I haven't seen either of you in a while and thought I'd stop by and say hello! Lieutenant Ross is here too!" He turned to wave the dark haired woman over.

"Hello Edward, Alison." She approached with an annoyed smile and grabbed her partner by the back of his coat. "We really must be going." She pushed him along. "What have I told you about reading social queues? You clearly interrupted something!" She scolded him.

Edward buried his face in his hands and groaned.

"Maybe we should have stayed in that utility closet." Alison murmured. "Though I guess you can't expect too much privacy in a public park."

* * *

"Spells and Cantrips?" Edward read the title out loud before the notebook was snatched from his hands.

Alison sat on the floor, her back against the base of the couch, as she wrote things down in a notebook on the coffee table. The teen had music playing next to her while she worked. The music would drown out their voices if by chance anyone was trying to listen in.

"I realized, almost too late, how much trouble I could have been in if anyone read my notes. So, I'm hiding them by writing them in a similar way to a popular game back home." Alison explained without looking up from her other notebook.

"What did you do with the other notes?" He questioned.

"I made a paper mache Alphonse. Didn't you see it?" She pointed to the large paper armor in the corner of the room. "I'm giving it to Winry."

"Why?" Ed asked hesitantly. He felt maybe he didn't want to know the answer.

"Because if she's going to keep making kissy faces at me every time you walk in a room, I'm going to send her home with the closest thing to an Alphonse sex doll I can get."

"Yeah, I wish I hadn't asked." Edward murmured.

Though he wasn't completely opposed to the idea of giving the other teens a taste of the same teasing they'd been doing to them. True, Al and Winry hadn't had much physical contact, but the way the two acted together spoke volumes.

"Wait…sex doll? Does that mean you gave it a…you know?"

"Gross! No way!" She sounded appalled at the idea. "I mean, what would it even look like?!" She stopped and seemed to think for a moment. Edward wasn't sure how he felt about her seemingly trying to envision his brother's…

"Can we please stop this conversation?" Ed cringed. "What do these titles mean?" He sat down next to her and opened one of her journals.

"Bestiary is about the creatures we've encountered. Envy is the mimic. Lust is the grave hag. Arcanery is the lore surrounding alchemy, the philosopher's stone, Father, and Asta. Then there's a history run down. All names and places are changed. And the best part is, I wrote out the rules I remember, and this can actually be used as a set of instructions to play the game."

"This is…actually really impressive." Edward mused while thumbing through the books. She'd even sketched some items and creatures.

"Don't sound so surprised." Ali chuckled and nudged him with her elbow.

"Hey…" Edward started, his voice suddenly turning serious. "What you said earlier…about my dad…I need to know more."

Alison watched him stare at a spot on the wall before she sighed.

"It's all a very strange story. Though I guess you hear a lot of those these days." She leaned back. "Your father isn't exactly human. Not anymore, at least. He's centuries old. He told me he was a slave in Xerxes when something that he called a dwarfed in a flask spoke to him in his master's laboratory. That thing was essentially the homunculi known as Father without a physical body.

"He told your father the secret of alchemy and your father earned a place as part of the King's brain trust. The king wanted to avoid death and the homunculi promised him eternal life.

"But instead, he used the life of the entire country to create a body that gave him the power of a Philosopher's stone. He also made your father immortal and gave his body that same power. He took the same form as your father, so initially I thought he was the homunculus.

"Hohenheim travelled for four hundred years before he met your mother and fell in love. He said he left to stop whatever Father has planned."

Alison told Edward all of the information she'd been given.

"And Bradley?" He inquired after a long silence. "I can tell you're suspicious of him."

"I can't be sure. But I had a strange feeling around the three homunculi that attacked us in Central. Then again with Greed. And I felt it around King Bradley. I think he could be one of them." She said. "All I have to go off is gut feeling. That won't exactly hold much weight with an accusation like that. Just…watch your step around him." She warned.

"What about your alchemy?"

"Heh." She chuckled though there was no humor in it. "I guess your dad and I are in the same boat."

"You mean…" Edward looked at her incredulously. "You're a living Philosopher's stone?"

"Because Asta's soul absorbed so many souls after Xerxes fell, and she absorbed the souls of each body she's co-habitated with over the past four hundred years, her soul essentially carried that power. And since her soul is also in me, I too, can access that power."

"So…what happens if you die? Does she absorb your soul, too?" He asked. The woman shrugged.

"Probably. But I'm also supposed to be the end of the reincarnation line. I'm the one, in this body, that Father wants. Or mainly, Asta in this body." Alison leaned forward and snatched one of her journals and flipped through it. "We did some research to see if there was a way to separate her soul from mine. If we could, she'd theoretically be freed, and I'd be of no use to them anymore. Unfortunately, most of it has gotten me no where." She handed the book to him.

"Like a reverse blood seal?" He questioned. "And if you're of no use to them, wouldn't they just kill you?" He pointed out.

"Probably. But I also highly doubt their entire plan hinges on me. He has to have a back up. I could get hit by lightning tomorrow and die and his entire plan would just go up in smoke. There's a Plan B, and I have a feeling it has to do with you and Alphonse."

"I've been suspecting that as well." Edward confessed. "Ever since that day that Envy mentioned something about the luck that you ended up with us. It's been bothering me ever since. But when you left months ago, I was curious to see if they would make a move. But they never seemed to." He leaned forward and put a hand to his chin in thought.

Alison wondered to herself, was she so predictable that they knew she wouldn't run? She looked at Edward and it felt like the answer punched her right in the chest.

"They knew I would come back." She states softly. "Where ever you were…" Edward looked at the woman whose face seemed full of conflicting emotions. "They knew I'd eventually go to you."

Edward felt his face warming, but the same conflicting emotions rushed over him as well. Their growing feelings for each other could be a liability.

Edward grabbed her hand and held it tight. His golden eyes stared into hers. He had never felt an emotion like the one he had towards this girl. But he found he liked it and desperately wanted to hold on to it. Alison smiled and gave his hand a couple of quick squeezes.

"It's their mistake though." Edward said softly. "You're just like Al and I. Tough on our own, but tougher together." He smiled

"Who knew Edward Elric was so eloquent with his words." Alison giggled.

Edward felt a warm tingle down his spine when he heard her laugh.

"Hey, don't act so surprised." He repeated her wording from earlier.

Alison leaned over to him and pressed her lips against his. He was surprised at first by the sudden action, but quickly obliged by returning the kiss. He felt his breath hitch when she deepened their kiss by gaining access to his tongue. And when she crawled into his lap and straddled him on the floor, back against the base of the couch, it felt like his entire brain malfunctioned.

His brain couldn't tell him what to do so his body just did what felt right. She ran her fingers up his face and into his hair. His hands held her thighs tightly before moving to grab her buttocks. She let out a soft, breathy sound against his lips and pressed closer to him. His hands moved up to her hips, then up the back of her shirt. She shivered as the cold automail touched her bare skin but didn't pull away.

The two kissed passionately, moving against each other in a way that felt like it was setting their bodies on fire.

Ali pulled away and stared down into those golden eyes that enchanted her so. His pupils were blown out as he stared back into her eyes. His lips were swollen and wet, and his cheeks were red. His hair was a mess from her hands running through it. She pressed a hand against his chest and felt it's fast rise and fall from his breathless panting. She was sure she probably looked about the same.

A gentle, but genuine smile graced her lips and Edward felt his brain melting again. She leaned back down and kissed him again.

In the back of her mind she knew. She knew this relationship wouldn't have a happy ending. She was from a completely different world, and she needed to return. And even if she didn't, the dangers that awaited them outside those doors might see to their destruction. Eventually there would come a time when they would no longer get to embrace one another or even speak to each other. But until then, moments like what they were experience right then; holding each other close, laughing together, being happy, those moments they would stretch out for as long as they could.


	9. Chapter 9

Winry was to return to Rush Valley the next day so the friends decided to spend an evening out.

The group went to a popular place known for its food, alcohol, and music. Edward initially didn't care for the loud music, but it's surprising what a few strong drinks can do to one's attitude.

Alison was amazed to see that the drink recipes she'd shown off in Youswell had made their way to Central and were quite popular with the group.

"How do you say that thing again?" Winry slurred. "The cheers but in that language from your home?"

"Salud!" Alison raised her glass.

"Salud!" Winry repeated happily and clinked her glass against Alison's. "What's that language called again?"

"Spanish. And it's the second most spoken language in my part of my country." She explained. "I'm actually fluent in that language." She boasted. "My uncle's wife is from Puerto Rico, so she taught my cousins, my brother, and I to speak Spanish at young ages. When we're with her that's the only language we speak to her in."

The group talked and laughed over their dinner and drinks.

Alison excused herself to the restroom. As she left the facilities, before rounding the corner to the rest of the bar, a man passed by her.

"Following me now?" She spoke as the man passed by. "Or, don't tell me, you're here for the band." She turned to the man.

"I think you have me confused with someone else." The man replied.

"Cut the shit. Your presence is as unsettling to me as a dildo taped to a truck stop bathroom wall."

"….What?"

"Why are you here?" She barked.

"How disappointing. I didn't expect you to be able to spot me." He sighed.

"Envy!" She snapped his name, demanding he answer the question.

"You ran off for quite awhile. Did a little snooping where snooping shouldn't be done." The man smirked. "Just keeping an eye on you. Making sure you don't _keep_ snooping."

Alison narrowed her eyes at the sin disguised.

"Stay out of trouble, brat." He roughly smacked her back as he walked away from her. "Oh, and you might want to tell your friends to keep their noses clean, too. Too much digging could get someone killed." He flashed her a devious smirk before disappearing.

Alphonse, being the only sober one in the group, was the only one who noticed the change in Alison's demeanor when she returned. She did a good job trying to mask it, but he saw right through it.

The group walked back to the dorms. Edward and Winry walked ahead of the other teens, arms locked and doing this ridiculous walk. They would kick their legs up high as they walked, then skid side to side while chanting something unintelligible.

Alison smiled at the two. It was nice seeing them both looking carefree for once. She didn't know Winry as well, but this was still a higher level from her usual sweet attitude.

"Did something happen to you back there?" Alphonse asked suddenly.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked.

"When you came back from the bathroom." He said. "You were acting different."

Alison considered lying to the other young man, but something told her he would see right through it.

"Envy was there." She told him.

"The homunculus?" Al asked with a gasp. She nodded in affirmation.

"Said he was keeping an eye on me. Apparently, I spent the past five months sticking my nose in places it shouldn't be."

"How did you know it was him?" Alphonse questioned.

"It's hard to explain. But I can just _feel_ it when one of them are around." She explained. Alphonse watched a deep frown etch into the women's face. "I try to just take all of this in stride. Just roll with the punches. But I'm fucking terrified. What if you guys get hurt because of me? Sometimes I wonder, if I just give them what they want, would they leave everyone else alone?"

"Stop it!" Al yelled. The young woman stopped, shocked by the tone in his voice. "Don't talk like that! You can't just give up!"

Alison's face softened.

"Al…I don't know if I could ever forgive myself if either of you got killed because of me." She looked at the armor with sad eyes that said this thought had been weighing on her mind for awhile.

"So, what? You think if you just hand yourself over to them it'll make everything right?" He snapped. "Don't be an idiot!" Alison had never seen Alphonse like this. " _We_ invited you to come with us, knowing when we saw those markings that it could trouble!" His voice was lower but his tone was still the same 'shut up and listen'. "We're in this together, and you don't get to just make the call to give up like that! We have our end goal to get our bodies back, and to get you home. But it means nothing if we don't _all_ come out of this _alive_!" Alphonse was shocked, to say the least, when his rant earned a hug from the woman. Alphonse sighed and hugged the woman back.

"I'm sorry Al." She whispered, and he could hear the tears in her voice. "I just…the thought of something happening to you guys…"

"We're all scared." Alphonse spoke softly. "That's why we have to stick together."

"Everything okay?" Edward asked when the pair approached the other teens. They notice about a block up that their companions weren't directly behind them.

"Yeah, just had a little chat." Ali replied with a smile.

"Let's get going!" Winry urged. "I brought a bottle of that wine from the party with me." Winry grinned.

"Hell yeah!" Alison said excitedly. She linked arms with the blonde woman and the two raced together to the hotel.

* * *

Asta drew a circle in the air, a glowing line trailed behind her hand. Pretty neat the things one could do in dreams.

"Ok. If we switch this symbol of binding to this one, it should allow for a mostly harmless separation." She spoke.

"Dude, can we do this later? I know this is a dream or whatever, but I'm still fucking drunk." Alison slurred.

"Stop fooling around! This is important! Or do you want to be used as a sacrifice?" Asta scolded.

"Hey, you're the one that told me to enjoy shit while I could."

"And you did. Now it's time to get serious."

Alison rolled her eyes and tried to concentrate on what the other woman was doing. It wasn't fair that she got to hold her dreams hostage like this.

"Are you paying attention?!" Asta snapped.

"No." Alison pinched the bridge of her nose.

"For once can you stop being so selfish?!"

"Me? You're the one trying to separate me from the power of the Philosopher's stone!" Alison snapped back.

"So he can't use us!"

"Then he just kills me and uses the Elrics and whatever else they have planned!"

"I don't care if he kills them!" Asta shouted.

Alison scowled at her.

"I just want to break this damn seal so my soul can finally leave this place!" Asta continued.

"Fine." Alison sneered. "You find a way to separate us but leave me the power, and I'll happily do so. But I'm not just going to run."

"You don't understand what it's like!"

"I don't understand what it's like to jump from body to body for four hundred years. You are absolutely right. But I understand getting a raw deal. If you haven't been paying attention, I got one of those too."

"That's just it! Now is the time to fix things! You can get home." A look passed over Ali's face and Asta felt a subtle anger rise inside her. "You're letting your emotions cloud your judgement!" Asta accused.

Alison stood up and stood face to face with the princess.

"No, I think my emotions are making my judgement clearer than ever. If you want to be a coward, fine. Find your way out and go." Alison spun around and walked away. "We're done for tonight."

"You don't just get to brush me off like that!" Asta yelled.

"I said, we're done!" With that, Asta's presence and her arrays disappeared.

Alison opened her eyes in reality and slowly sat up. She groaned as the motion made her head hurt. She watched her sleeping companions as well as Alphonse. He told her once that he didn't sleep but could go into a deep meditation to rest his mind. That's what he did most nights.

Alison sat up and found herself cursing inwardly. She glanced across the room, her eyes laying on Edward, fast asleep on the couch.

Why was she feeling so irritated that Asta was working to get them what they both wanted?

* * *

The group waved goodbye to Winry as she boarded her train. Alison said she hadn't slept well and wanted to take a nap back at the dorms.

Alison stared at the wall as she laid on her bed. She tried to think of her options but so many things swirled in her mind. She stood up and rummaged through her bag for her digital camera. She flipped through the pictures of her friends and family. She smiled fondly. She missed them. She missed Amber's laugh and the dumb puns she made. She missed her dad's bear hugs and her mom's cooking. She missed her brother and his stupid redneck personality. Then she reached a picture of Edward. It was one she'd taken the day after they met to show him how the camera worked. The next picture was of Alphonse. Then the two brothers taking pictures of her, the interior or the train, themselves.

This was ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous! If she'd been this close to finding a way home seven months ago, she'd be back home by now! Right?

She rubbed her face. It was difficult to remember. She had the strong drive to return to her world then, right?

She fell back against the bed. If she hadn't been found by Ed, if she hadn't been so immediately drawn to him, despite her fear of all of it, would she still be asking these questions? If literally any other person had found her or given her shelter, would she still be debating any of this? Why Ed? Was it a coincidence? Considering their ties to each other through research and the homunculi, was he meant to find her? Was it fate?

She shook her head. She was making excuses. She was looking for a reason to stay. But if she was looking so desperately for a reason to stay, shouldn't she just…stay?

She pulled her pillow over her head and yelled her frustrations into the pillow.

Asta was so close to figuring things out. How long before she did?

A knock came at her door, snapping her from her thoughts.

"Come in." She spoke after removing the pillow from her face.

"Hey." Ed poked his head in the room. "Do you wanna go eat? I'm staving!"

She smiled and nodded before leaving her room.

The two sat together in a restaurant not far from the dorms.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ed asked her after their food had arrived.

"Yeah. Why?" She asked.

"You just seem really quiet. Like you're upset about something."

"I just…have a lot on my mind is all." She said and began cutting into her food. He was watching her but she wouldn't meet his gaze. She knew he was trying to figure her out, and god dammit was he good at it.

"Why do you do that?" He prodded. "One minute you're opening up about everything, and the next you're closing yourself off."

"Pot calling the kettle black, huh?"

He glared in response. But he also knew she was right.

"What if…" She spoke carefully. "What if I never go home?"

The question seemed to take the man by surprised and his expression softened.

"If you let yourself get caught up in thoughts like that, you just end up holding yourself back. You have to keep moving and believing there's a way." He said softly.

"That's not…" She sighed. That wasn't what she meant. "Let's talk hypothetically for a second. Let's say I never go back. Regardless of the reason, I'm here for the rest of my life. What then?"

"I guess…you could just make a life for yourself here." He shrugged.

"Yes, but what _kind_ of life? Am I supposed to spend the rest of my life continuing to search? Or at some point do I just give up and try to have a normal life?" She rambled on.

"Ali…" He spoke her name so softly that it felt like it momentarily calmed the tornado in her mind. He took her hand gently and held it. "I can't…I won't tell you which path to choose. But if you choose the path to stay…" The look in his eyes seemed to make the world melt away for her. In that moment, it was just him and her. He took a deep breath. "If you were to stay here, I could…help you make a life here."

A tinge of pink came to her face, but she smiled nonetheless.

"Thank you, Edward. You have no idea how much that means to me."

When they returned to the dorms, Alison felt like her head was swimming. Perhaps she'd been indulging too much in the low drinking age of this country. Al was nowhere to be found. She vaguely remembered him saying something about someone they knew finding a bunch of kittens. Alison wanted to lie down so maybe her head could stop spinning.

She laid out on her bed. She just wanted the thoughts in her head to stop buzzing around like a nest of angry wasps.

"You're still worried." Ed stated as he sat on the foot of her bed.

"I just can't get my brain to be quiet." She rubbed her face.

Ed knew all too well what that was like.

"Got any remedies for that?" She asked.

None he was going to say out loud.

"Now I gotta know." She smirked.

"What?"

"You're blushing." She pointed out.

By god if that didn't make his face warmer.

"You are too!" He accused.

"Excuse me, sir. If my cheeks are pink, it's due to alcohol." She countered. She sat up and leaned in close to him. "So, what is it? What's the Ed Elric remedy?" She smirked.

"You really wanna know?" He sighed.

"Mhmm." Her smirk never faded.

"Are you _sure_ you wanna know?" He teased.

"Yes!"

"I don't know…you may not be able to handle it." He brought a hand to his chin.

"For the love of- just tell me!"

Lips pressed against her own. Not what she was expecting, but it seemed to work. At that moment all thoughts that didn't involve Edward's lips against hers melted away.

He pulled away and grinned.

"Did it work?" He smirked.

"Mmm. Not sure. Let me try it again." She kissed him again. She kissed him deeply and pulled him closer. He pushed against her until she was lying back on the bed. He hovered over her, his knee between her legs.

Ed's weight on top of her was a feeling she didn't realize she was missing in her life. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. His lips left hers and trailed down to nibble at her neck. She let out a light moan. She wasn't aware how much she needed that either.

"Well, I can't argue with your methods." She smirked against his neck.

Alphonse returned at a late hour. Lights were still on but the dorm was dead quiet. Alison's bedroom door was opened so he peeked inside, hoping to find her or his brother. He found the two, fast asleep. They were facing each other in the bed, arms wrapped securely around each other.

* * *

There was something Edward secretly enjoyed walking in on. More often these days did he find Ali in her room, dancing around the her music. No longer shy about her moves, she'd often start dancing more flamboyantly, lip syncing directly at him. He enjoyed seeing her so comfortable around him. The way she'd swing her hips and move her hands and feet was amusing.

Another activity he was starting to enjoy was the evenings spent with her. Most evenings when he wasn't stuck at HQ he spent then with Alphonse and Ali. Either they'd all be entirely quiet, completely absorbed in their own studies. Or the three would chat or tell stories. Sometimes, they'd visit the Hughes family. Occasionally, it would just be Edward and Alison; Alphonse usually out doing something on his own.

Even if they weren't in Central, on some mission Mustang had sent him on, it was a routine he was finding himself easily falling in to.

This particular evening Alphonse was, indeed, out. He'd volunteered to help Scheska with her personal library. He liked to help the woman, but she also made sure to keep some interesting reads set aside for him.

"So, in your country, your region is just referred to as 'the south'?" Ed repeated.

"Yeah. It's got this whole culture around it. Southern food, music, décor, accents, blah, blah, blah."

The two were lying together on Alison's bed, side by side. Her music played lightly in the background.

"So what does the rest of the world call the region?

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Texas?"

"Do you understand that your answers just raise more questions?"

The way she smirked usually made his chest flutter. He couldn't help smiling when her eyes would light us as she went on some rambling explanation of things from her world. The telling of the film Jurassic Park had been especially fun to watch.

"So when I was a kid my brother used to tell me I was adopted. And he was either super clever or super lucky." Ali told Edward. "My parents had all these pictures of my brother being born but none of me. So when I asked my parents they said the film had been corrupted and the pictures didn't develop. And this little shit's response was 'that's what I'd say too.' So I'm like ten years old and having this crisis of am I adopted or not, and Patrick's just laughing like the little dick he is."

"I feel like you don't get along well with your brother." Edward deduced.

The two were lying on their backs, just stating at the ceiling and swapping stories.

"Pfft. We couldn't have less in common even if I _had_ been adopted." She chuckled. "Still, he's my brother. He still protected me when we were kids. He found out some older kid in our neighborhood had been bullying me, and my brother ended up kicking his ass." She turned on to her side to look at the blonde lying next to her. "But you'd never do anything mean like tell Al he was adopted, right?" She grinned and poked his side.

"Heh, no, but I did once tell him Winry was waiting in the shed behind the house to give him a kiss. Really, it was just a raccoon trapped in there." Ed grinned sheepishly. "He screamed _so_ loud and I got in _so_ much trouble." He laughed.

"How could you!" Alison playfully smacked his chest. "To sweet Alphonse!"

"Hey, don't let him fool you! He can be mean, too! One time he put like ten lizards in my bed when I was sleeping!"

Alison almost fell out of the bed she was laughing so hard. Edward just glared at her as she laughed until tears formed at her eyes.

"It's not that funny!"

"I just…I keep imagining you, flailing around and…" She tried to speak between chuckles.

"That's it!" He grumbled and rolled on top of the woman, pinning her to the bed. He pressed his flesh hand firm against her mouth. "Stop laughing." He warmed. She shook her head in response and just ended up breathing heavily through her nose as her chest shook with laughter. You're being ridicul- what the fuck?!" He ripped his hand away. "Did you just lick my hand?" He asked over her continued laughter.

"Oh my god, stop, my stomach hurts." She pleaded through her waning laughs. She pursed her lips together tightly as he glared down at her. She covered her face and took deep breaths until she had finally calmed herself. "How did he even catch that many lizards?" She asked with a teary eyed grin and she wiped the tears of laughter from her face.

"I dunno, Al has always been a fast and sneaky kid. Even in the armor he's fast. Not so much sneaky anymore." Ed murmured.

"If it's any conciliation, my brother put a spider on my head once while we were camping. It was a harmless spider, but my reaction wasn't all too composed." She snickered. She grunted and pushed against the blonde's chest. "What am I, your new pillow?" The tried to move the man that was still lying on top of her.

"Hmm. Maybe. This isn't all too uncomfortable." He replied while relaxing his full weight on top of the woman.

"Surely not." She rolled her eyes and poked at his sides, interested to feel his muscles twitch under her touch. Could the Fullmetal Alchemist possibly be ticklish?

"Stop that!" He finally lifted his weight after she'd begun a spider crawl of her fingers against his ribs. He looked down at her and she had a mischievous grin.

This was interesting new information, indeed.

* * *

It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, it was warm, spring was turning to summer.

"I see brother." Alphonse announced as he watched the blonde approaching.

"Sorry for the wait." Ed apologized as he approached the two. "Ready to eat?"

"Actually, I was going to go help Schezka in the records office. I just didn't want to leave Alison all alone. You two go ahead." Alphonse gave the woman one last glance before walking toward the group of buildings that made of HQ.

The teens enjoyed a simple lunch together before taking a stroll down the street.

"I found this really nice swimming hole not too far out of the city. It's not a far walk from here. Wanna go?" Ali suggested.

"Sure, but I don't think I have any swimwear." Ed told her.

"Beh." The noise and wave of her hand was dismissive.

"How'd you even find this place?" Ed asked in awe of the lagoon with crystal clear water. It was next to where a small river ran through the outskirts of the city.

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Sometimes when I'm bored I'd just explore the woods. My dad always said I had a natural talent for find neat hang outs."

Ed took in his surroundings. The sounds of the birds, the river flowing, mixed with the trees rustling. It was so relaxing. The lagoon seems to cut itself into the curve of a bluff about fifteen or so feet high. He turned to look at the Ali but only saw a pile of clothes; shoes, shorts, and a shirt.

"Um…Ali?"

It was then that he heard her let out an excited yell as she came running off the bluff in her underwear, into the water. Watching her resurface was a scene he never thought he'd enjoy so much.

"Come on!" She waved the young man in. "Get up there and jump!"

"I'm gonna have to pass." Ed shook his head.

How did he fall for this seemingly fearless woman? This woman that had looked danger in the face and made sarcastic remarks. Taught a damn Homunculus to play a new card game. Travelled across the desert and half of the country alone.

"Can't you swim?" She tilted her head. "Or is your automail too heavy to swim?"

"I can swim." He told her. "And Winry recently upgraded my automail to a lighter material."

"Then what's the problem?" She antagonized. "Fullmetal!" She called his name with a deeper voice, obviously trying to imitate the Colonel. "I order you to get in here!"

Edward rolled his eyes and muttered his concession. He was finding it harder to say no to her. She made him laugh. She made him feel like he was worth redemption. The way she looked at him, it felt like the first time he performed a transmutation. The thrill of it running through his entire body.

He looked up to see that she'd dove underwater, and took the opportunity to strip to his boxers. Even after all that she'd been through, it was amazing how she could still be so carefree.

From what he could recall, she'd never seen him with anything less than his black jacket. A voice in the back of his mind wondered if she would react negatively when she saw on the imperfections scattered across his body.

He walked up the hill to the top of a bluff. He took a deep breath and made a running start before diving into the water below.

He resurfaced, surprised at how pleasant the temperature was. He looked for his companion to see her swimming aimlessly. She caught him looking at her and smiled.

She ducked back underwater, and he could see her through the clear waters and she swam towards him. She resurfaced a couple if feet from him and smirked.

"When you didn't seem bothered about not having a swimsuit, I thought that meant you weren't actually planning on swimming. Not swimming in your underwear." Edward said. The young woman smirked.

"Of course I wanted to go swimming. Besides, back home a pair of panties and a bra covers about the same as most bathing suits." She explained.

"I was more or less referring to them being soaked now."

"Well, if wet clothes bothered you so much you could always swim naked." A playful smirk slid across her lips when his face reddened. "You're cute when you're embarrassed." The remark earned a splash in the face. She laughed and splashed back.

Alison dove back under the surface and swam to the bluff. When she resurfaced, she pulled herself out of the water and onto a flat rock surface just above the surface.

Edward followed and continued floating in front of her. His eyes scanned over her, as the water glistened off of her body and her undergarments seemed to cling to her skin. He quickly looked away when he realized he was staring. He decided to join her and pulled himself out of the water.

"It reminds me of back home." Alison spoke softly as she lightly kicked her feet in the water. "My friends and I used to go to the lake in the summer. We'd swim. Jump off the cliffs. It was a lot of fun." She told him with a thoughtful smile.

The look on her face was one he'd grown familiar with. He could tell in that moment she was homesick.

"Hey, don't worry. We're bound to find you a way home soon." He offered her a reassuring smile.

Another look crossed her face that he wasn't familiar with, but it was quickly masked with a smile. Deep down, a selfish part of him wanted it to take as long as possible to find that way home.

From the conversation they'd had just. A few days ago, he was sure it had all been heavily weighing on her mind more.

"Even if we don't, I guess I could get used to this world." She replied. The smile that came across his face made her heart stop, and in that moment, she realized she was calling so many decisions in to question. If given the chance to separate from Asta and go home, would she go home? Or would she stay? Was it reckless and insane to give up ever seeing her world and her family again because of the feelings for one man?

"This place ain't so bad." He grinned. "And of course, Al and I will help you however we can to make a life here for you."

"I'd like that." She smiled.

Her eyes trailed down his body. She realized she'd never seen this much of his bare body before. He was incredibly muscular. Alison felt a warm sensation coil in her stomach as she looked at him. She then noticed the scars.

"Is this from Greed?" She asked and gently brushed her fingertips over the mostly healed wound.

"Yeah…" A light blush dusted his cheeks at the contact. "It's nothing, really."

"My mom used to say every scar has a story." She ran her thumb along the cut. "Someday, I hope I can hear all of yours."

Her hands moved up his body to the scars on his right shoulder. She lightly ran her fingers over the blemished area. The man sitting next to her seemed almost invincible to her. He'd looked death in the eyes multiple times and came out stronger, and he had the scars to prove it. This _genius_ with the will made of iron, who gave his arm to save his brother. He'd been through so much, but he never gave up. Every step he took, he took with more determination than the last.

A small gasp escaped her as his flesh hand grabbed the one touching him. The way he was looking at her brought that heat in her stomach back.

God, how did this happen? How the hell did she get pulled into an entirely different world, had the most insane things happen to her. She almost _died._ Yet, here she was, falling into this niche by his side like she was meant to be there. It didn't make any fucking sense. But she didn't want it to stop. The way his golden eyes on her made her breath catch, the way she felt so hypersensitive to his presence, to his touch. And after each brush with danger, his presence gave her comfort. She felt braver around him. Like she could tear down mountains with him by her side.

Without letting go of her hand he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.

Her soft lips and fingers explored his muscular body. Hot and cold hands raked down smooth skin, the difference in temperature providing an incredible sensation. Lips and hands touched where no other person had touched before. Pulling soft gasps and moans from each others tongues. Learning where the most sensitive spots were. Lying bare against the flat, hard surface, but trying to melt into each other.

The two lied close together, holding one another. As much as they would both enjoy continuing to find other ways to please each other, the sun would start setting soon. They needed to head back to the city.

* * *

A few days later, Alison was spending the day with Gracia and Elysia Hughes. She wanted to help with some baking for a party the family was planning to throw. Alison wanted to share a family recipe for sugar cookies.

Alison thought about the Elric brothers and how secretive they'd been acting that morning but pushed the thought aside as she help Elysia cut out shapes in the rolled out dough.

It was when Gracia was showing Alison her apple pie recipe that the phone rang. Gracia picked it up to be greeted by her husband on the other end of the line.

"What do you mean? Is everything alright, dear?" Gracia sounded worried. She was silent as her husband spoke on the other end. "Okay. Don't worry about us. Stay safe, Maes. I love you." She hung up the phone.

"Is everything okay?" Alison questioned.

"Yes," Gracia turned to her with a forced smile. "It seems there is a dangerous criminal on the loose in the streets. My husband called to instruct us to stay inside and keep the doors locked." She noticed the way Alison immediately looked panicked. "Don't worry about the boys, they're strong, they'll be okay." She reassured the younger woman.

The woman tried to continue focusing on baking but it was difficult with the sounds of sirens racing by, and distance sounds and crashing and even what sounded like explosions.

Would the Elrics really be alright? It took so much self control to not just bolt out the door and go see for herself.

Hours later, the sun was setting and the city seemed to calm down. The sound of keys in the door caught everyone's attention. The door opened and Maes Hughes walked in, looking exhausted. Despite this, he still picked his daughter up and loved on her with the same energy as he always did.

"Is everything alright, Maes?" Gracia asked as she hugged her husband.

"You have nothing to worry about." He grinned and hugged his wife. "Alison, why don't you let me give you a ride back to the dorms?" He asked.

"That's okay, you must be exhausted. I don't want to be any trouble." She replied.

"Actually…" He smiled nervously. "After today's events, I think I'd feel better if I know you got back safely. So why don't you consider it giving me peace of mind?"

"Yes, please let him take you back." Gracia chimed in.

Alison was touched by how the family was so worried about her. She couldn't tell them no.

The ride back seemed pleasant enough at first. Alison and Maes talked about the goods she'd made with his wife that day. Then the man seemed to get serious.

"I'm only telling you this because I think you have a right to know the danger you could be in." He suddenly said. "What Ed and Al did today…" He gripped the steering wheel tighter.

Alison's breath froze, had they been hurt during the commotion today?

"What happened?"

"They tried to lure out a wanted murderer. A man wanted for brutally murdering State Alchemists. So they went around the city basically advertising that Ed was a State Alchemist to get him to go after Ed. Well…it worked." Hughes told her. "The man that attacked is very dangerous. I know you're already aware of the dangers possible being so close to a member of an elite branch of the military, but I just feel I should warn you. This man could try to hurt you as well."

"Thank you for the warning Mr. Hughes." She nodded and tried to hide the anger swelling in her. Thosefucking _idiots_.

* * *

It was late when Edward and Alphonse returned to the dorms, a little better patched up than they had been a few hours ago. They opened their door to find Alison sitting on the couch, one leg hooked over the other, arms crossed, and looking absolutely furious.

"Oh, hey Ali. It's late isn't it?" Ed asked nervously. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Are you two fucking serious?" Her voice was cold and dark.

"Um…what do you mean?" Al even sounded nervous.

"That's why you two were acting so weird earlier? Because you were intending to use yourselves as _bait_ to lure out a fucking _serial killer_?!" She shouted.

"Hey, don't get upset." Edward tried to calm her. "We're fine. Just a few scrapes and bruises."

"That's not the point! This man is specifically targeting State Alchemists and you just decide to look like you've prepared yourself up on a platter for him?! Are you fucking insane?!" She was nearly yelling.

"We had to!" Al defended. "We needed answers! About him, and the homunculi!"

"But why did it have to be you two?!" The boys froze when they saw tears actually forming in their friend's brown eyes. "Fuck." She mumbled and she wiped her eyes. "I know your lives can be dangerous. I _know_ that. I get that sometimes it's unavoidable. But…when I heard the explosions and sirens today, I couldn't stop thinking about if you guys were okay, or if you were hurt, or even killed. What happens if either of you had died, huh?" She stared at them through teary eyes. "What if you'd both had died? Then I'm…" She tried to not choke on a sob. "I'm all alone. My closest friends here, just gone. And what about Winry?" Alison cradled her face in her hands. "I'm sorry…it's just…why does it always have to be you two that runs head first into the fire? Let someone else do it for a change."

A deafening silence stretched between them in the room.

"We can't do that." Edward spoke. "Our plan worked. We lured him out and also lured out the homunculi."

"We can't let someone else risk themselves when we're the one searching for answers." Al agreed.

Alison didn't respond for a few moments before giving a simple nod.

"I guess I can't be upset. You've always been up front about the dangers you put yourselves in." Alison spoke quietly and calmly. "I'm going to sleep now." She stood from the couch. "I'm glad you're both okay. Good night." She slowly walked to her room and disappeared behind the door.

Damn…she was really going to be mad if she finds out they trapped Gluttony.

Alphonse encouraged his brother to go check on their companion and comfort her.

Edward lightly rapped his knuckles against the door and waited for a response. When one never came he slowly opened the door and peered in.

The moonlight peering in through the partially closed curtains cast the room in a soft glow.

Alison was lying in her bed, blanket pulled over her shoulders, with her back to the door.

Quietly, Edward walked to her bed, shutting the door behind him. If she was awake, she'd still hear him.

"Ali…" He spoke the nickname he called her, softly. "I'm sorry we upset you."

"It's fine." She mumbled and pulled the blanket closer. So she was awake. "I can't act like I wasn't warned in the beginning."

"Can I sit down?" He asked. Her answer was to just scoot over so he'd have room. Instead of sitting, he pulled back the blanket and slid in the bed next to her. He pulled her tightly against his chest and he felt a sob shake her body.

"I'm sorry, I'm being such a baby." She whispered and wiped her face.

"Don't apologize." He murmured against her neck. "Just, please don't cry anymore. I hate seeing you cry. Especially when it's because of something I did."

"Will you just stay here tonight?" She whispered softly. He held her tighter.

"I'm going to be right here until you wake up in the morning." He assured her. She seemed to relax in his arms.

"Did you catch him?" She questioned.

"…No. Not exactly."

"Ed?" She sounded suspicious.

The man stood from the bed and rummaged through her bed side table. He pulled out her mp3 player and the speaker. He turned the music on before getting back in the bed. If anyone was listening, their voices would at least be drowned out.

"We ran in to a few problems regarding catching him. But…we caught something bigger." He said while crawling back in the bed.

The brunette shifted and rolled over to look at him.

"What did you do?" She asked carefully.

"We…well, also Ling…we caught Gluttony."

She stared at him blankly for a few moments as a few things began to click in her mind.

"What the fuck…" She sat up and rubbed her face. "Ed…what else haven't you told me?"

"What do you mean?" He really was a terrible liar. His voice gave it away immediately.

"I mean, it's been awfully quiet here lately. What _else_ haven't you told me?" She demanded answers.

"Mustang and one of his men ended up in the hospital a little over a week ago." He confessed. "The man under his command, Jean Havoc, he's paralyzed from the waste down. They were looking in to Lab 5." He said somberly. The brunette remained quiet, knowing there was more. "He killed Lust."

"He what?!" Alison's head spun towards him. "How?"

"He burned her to ash."

A distant look took over her eyes and he could see her thinking.

"So they can be killed." She stated. "This is amazing! Where is Gluttony?" She asked.

"We're going to deal with him tomorrow night." Ed told her, sidestepping her question.

"I'm going with you." She stated.

"No! No way!" Now he was sitting up.

"You can't possibly expect me to sit here! This is my fight too!" She argued.

"You could get hurt." He tried to reason.

"Edward, you literally have bandages wrapped around your head!" She pointed at the white cloth. "Please, Edward. This involves me, too. I can't sit back and let you guys do all the fighting and get hurt." Her tone softened.

Edward sighed and laid back down, gently pulling on the women's arm to have her follow.

"It's late. We can discuss this in the morning."

"No! I know that bit! You said we'll discuss it then you leave before I even wake up and leave me here! Promise me!" She hovered over the blonde, staring him down.

Edward sighed in defeat. It was against his better judgement. But she was tenacious.

"Fine."

"Promise me." She repeated.

"I promise."

She sighed, seemingly satisfied, and lied down next to him.

He turned enough to silence the music so they could sleep. She pressed close against his chest, her head fitting perfectly under his chin. Edward gently rubbed her back and placed a gentle kiss on her head.

He grimaced at the thought of how absolutely _pissed_ she would be tomorrow.


	10. Chapter 10

Alison sat on a park bench, absolutely fuming.

That _asshole_! He _promised_!

And yet, she still woke up alone. If she had to be honest with herself, she wasn't angry about the broken promise or waking up without mismatched arms wrapped around her making her feel like she was the safest she could ever be. No. She was angry because if they died, she wouldn't be there to maybe prevent it. She would just get a knock on the door, probably Hughes, telling her that they'd been killed.

The young woman picked up a rock, stood up, and threw it as hard as she could, letting out a frustrated yell. She earned a few bizarre looks from others in the park before they ignored her. She slumped back on to the bench and felt tears prickling her eyes. Her chest hurt so much. It felt like someone had laid a boulder on top of her.

"Left ya all alone, huh kid?" An average looking man of medium build and rust colored hair sat down next to her. He was wearing a black Amestrian government uniform.

"What do you want? If you're here to pick a fight or something I probably have some pent up issues I could work through." Alison grumbled.

"What do you take me for?" The disguised sin sounded offended. "I come with a proposition we can both benefit from."

"Oh boy." She drawled. "Can't wait to jump on this heck of a deal."

"I need to get Gluttony back. I happen to know where he is. I can bring you along, you make an appearance, throw the Fullmetal brat off his game, and I take Gluttony and go. No one gets hurt." Envy explained.

"Can't you just waltz in and get him yourself?"

"I'd love to, believe me. But I'm no idiot. Those boys aren't alone. And even I know better than to try and take all of them on at once without at least a few casualties. And the man in charge needs more than just you to stay alive."

Alison narrowed her eyes. More than just her?

"So, he doesn't just need me? He needs Ed and Al, too?" She asked.

"Look, we're getting off track. I'm not going to just spill all my secrets."

"Just enough to keep my attention, huh?" Her response earned her a knowing smirk. "No deal." She said. "I don't like being used as a pawn."

"Damn, that's too bad." He didn't sound that distraught. He stood up and towered over her.

Oh god dammit.

"You are hereby under arrest under orders of the Fuhrer." He announced loudly and yanked her to her feet by her arm.

"Oh you piece of shit!" She seethed.

* * *

The sin tied her tightly to a tree in the woods.

"There, that oughta hold ya." He said, admiring his work. The sun was going down, and of course it happened to shine through the leaves right in her face.

"You're just gonna leave me here?" She yelled at him.

"Just until you're needed."

"What if I have to pee? I'm hungry. How long is this going to take? What if my legs fall asleep? Are you going to bring me a snack?"

"Would you _shut up_ you brat?!" He snapped before wrapping a gag around her mouth.

She grinned inwardly. Just because she was his prisoner didn't mean she couldn't annoy the piss out of him.

Envy wanted to punch her when she started muffled singing, loudly, over the gag. He grabbed her face and brought his close to hers. His nails dug into her jaw as he hissed his warning.

"Just because I need you alive doesn't mean I need you to be able to speak. So shut your fucking trap before I cut your tongue out." He let go of her face with a jerk and sat down by another tree.

* * *

So…things went south faster than Envy anticipated. He didn't exactly plan for Gluttony to lose his shit and start trying to swallow Mustang, and anything or anyone who got in his way. He also didn't expect his tantrum to reach the area he had the girl tied up. He was going to be in so much trouble with Father for letting Gluttony get out of hand and swallow her.

Alison had always intended to escape. The idiot didn't know yet she could transmute without a circle or clapping. She had just intended to do it during another opportune moment. But she decided when trees started collapsing and disappearing around her, she needed to skedaddle. Her survival instincts told her to run from the commotion, but not knowing the state of the Erlics yet, she ran towards it. She heard yelling, several voices, trees falling over, the tell tale crackle of transmutation.

She came across a large rounded out depression in the ground, like it had just been scooped out. A chill ran down her spine and her stomach bottomed out.

She could hear Gluttony yelling somewhere off in the distance. She felt her fear sinking into her. Every fiber of her being told her to run in the other direction. Until she heard the voices of the Elric brothers a little further up. In that moment she was able to quiet the voices pleading for self preservation and move forward. She was not running.

Envy charged toward the prince but stopped short and fell face first into the dirt.

"What the-!" The sin looked down to find his legs had been bound by the earth morphing around them tightly.

"How's it feel to be tied up?" Alison shouted at the sin. "Annoying ain't it?"

"How the hell did you get loose?" He growled though secretly glad he didn't have to explain the Father why their sacrifice had been eaten.

"You don't know as much about me as you think."

"What are you doing here?" Ling yelled at the woman. If Edward, just on the other side of the wall separating him and Gluttony, were to find out she were there, he might start holding back to avoid putting her in any further danger.

"I'm here to kick multiple asses!" She replied. She pointed at Envy. "His, and Edward's when I find him."

"Dammit, you should have stayed away!" Ling shouted before the wall gave way as the Elric brothers were tossed through it. Ling turned his attention back to the sin on the ground and moved to strike. He froze when the sin took the on the appearance of a young woman with black hair, her upper body wrapped in bandages.

The sin yelled for his obese companion to make his move.

Gluttony had changed into some strange, grotesque creature. He had fangs protruding from his body and an all too familiar eye in the center. He opened some sort of portal that seemed to swallow anything in its wake.

Edward rushed toward Ling to move the young man out of harms way. And within seconds they were both gone.

Alphonse, missing a hand that had been trapped in the portal's range while reaching for his brother, looked on in shock and horror.

Envy, who had broken his bonds with an alarming lack of effort, stood with the upper half of the body he was imitating still standing, from when he'd reached out to prevent the older Elric from being swallowed. The torso suddenly burst into a black mist and disappeared.

Alphonse threw the fat sin on the ground, demanding that he spit his brother out.

"I can't." Gluttony said as the horrific mouth in his gut slowly sunk back into his body. "I swallowed them."

Alphonse let out a cry that shook the woman to her very soul.

No. This couldn't be real. Edward was…gone.

"What are you doing here?" Al's voice cut through the long silence that surrounded him. Al wouldn't loom away from the sin's stomach. "You aren't supposed to be here." His voice was cold and in obvious pain.

"Envy had other plans for me." Alison responded, her mind still refusing to believe what she'd seen. She approached the armored Elric. "I was so angry I'd been lied to, but I wasn't intending to be here after all of that. Envy was hoping to use me as some kind of bargaining chip. He had me tied up not too far from here." She stared at Gluttony.

"But you escaped." He stated.

"Yeah… I ran towards the sound of destruction to help." She collapsed on the ground and stared at the scoop in the ground where Edward had been minutes ago. "Too little too late, I guess." Her voice cracked.

"Father will be angry." Gluttony whimpered. The sin seemed to get an idea. "Maybe Father knows how to bring them back."

The teens stared at the fat creature. A fiery look crossed Alison's eyes that Alphonse spotted immediately. He placed a firm hand on her shoulder and took the lead.

"Do you think they're alive?" He asked Gluttony. He shrugged.

"Don't know. But Father will know."

"Take us to him!" Alphonse demanded.

Gluttony seemed to perk up.

"If I bring Father two sacrifices, Father won't be angry!" He rejoiced.

"That's right!" Ali chimed in. "We're sacrifices, he'll be very happy!"

The teens followed Gluttony in to the city where he led them through a secret passage in an alley way. The tunnels wreaked of blood and mildew. Alison felt a heavy weight on her chest.

The area was heavily guarded by aggressive chimeras. They didn't attack as long as they were with Gluttony.

They finally reached a large door that opened into a ginormous inner sanctum.

"Gluttony…I see you've brought guests." A voice cut through the room and the weight in Alison's chest seemed to double.

Ali came face to face with the creature responsible for the events in the past nine months of her life. And she was shaking. Her insides twisted and if she'd eaten in the past twenty-four hours she would've vomited. His presence made her sicker than she'd imagined, and she was terrified.

She realized she may not be equipped to fight this monster. And she thought on something Asta has been trying to convince her to do for days. And maybe she was right.

Gluttony let out a wail as his body began to contort and convulse. Alphonse and Alison looked on in horror as his stomach opened once more and some kind of creature was emerging from it.

This large grotesque creature crawled from the belly and collapsed on the floor.

"Envy?" Father said to the creature.

"That thing is Envy?" Alison murmured.

"Ed!" Alphonse called out and ran towards the creature.

Alison caught sight of the blonde tangled with the horrid creature, Ling Yao next to him. The relief that flooded her chest momentarily pushed aside the dread that loomed over her. She approached the blonde carefully, unsure if she wanted to hug him or strangle him.

Edward notice her as his brother was helping him to his feet.

"How did you get here?" He nearly shouted. "I didn't want you getting involved!"

"And yet, despite lying to me, here I am." She folded her arms across her chest, a irritated scowl over her face. "You can ask the ugly green giant over there about the why and how." She motioned to Envy.

"Brother only wanted to protect you." Alphonse defended his brother.

"And we all still ended up down here, anyways. Didn't we Al?" She snapped back.

"Envy, why is she here?" Edward growled at the sin.

"She was going to make a nice bargaining chip for Gluttony." He bellowed. "Until he lost his temper." His giant head turned towards her and she finally got a good look at him. He was just a monstrosity comprised of the tortured souls of others, their pained faces still moving and contorting under his skin. Or maybe they were his skin. "How did you escape? You never told me." He grinned.

"Tell you what, if you escort us out of here, maybe I'll tell you." She smiled.

"We have many things to discuss first." Father's voice brought back the nausea and anxiety like a hammer hitting a nail.

"Ali was right…he does look like him." Edward quietly spoke to his brother.

Father approached the brothers. He was speaking to them, but all Ali could suddenly hear was a horrible ringing in her ears coupled with the pounding of her heart. What was happening? She felt she couldn't move. Her vision blurred and her head began to spin.

"Hey! Ali, are you okay?!" Edward said frantically as he ran towards the brunette. She looked pale and sickly.

"Something's wrong…" She muttered, a hand clutching her pounding head.

"Not to worry." Father approached her. "You're just overwhelmed. Your power originated from me. That same power is like an entity of its own. It can sense that we're near each other." He placed a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder. "It desires completion. To become one with me again, as you are destined to be."

"What the hell are you saying, old man?" Ed snapped and pulled the woman from Father's grasp. The Homunculus frowned at him.

"It would be foolish to intervene." He warned.

"Shut up! Don't touch her!" Edward supported the weakening woman in his arms as she leaned against him. "I'm going to get you out of here." He assured her softly.

"I don't think you understand." Father's tone was threatening. "I put this plan into action centuries ago. It is my birthright to take the power that dwells inside her."

"You're so fucking full of yourself." Alison said in a pained chuckle. Father turned his attention to her. "This isn't because a non-sentient power wants to be part of you again. This is because your presence is _sickening_. And there's a princess trapped in here just clawing to get a piece of you." Alison clutched at her chest as breathing became difficult.

"I healed your friends. Well…the ones important for my plan. Allow me to relieve some of your pain." Father reached towards her again.

She broke from Edward's grip and stumbled backwards from him.

"The best remedy is to get as far from you as possible."

"Ali, leave. We can take care of this." Edward ordered before stepping in front of Father and taking a fighting stance.

"No way! I'm not going to leave this psycho to you!" She argued.

"You can't fight, you can barely stand!" Alphonse interjected. "Just leave!"

Alison clenched her teeth and cringed. She felt like a coward, but they were right.

"If either of you die, I swear I will bring you back from the dead just so I can strangle you. Got it?"

Ed smirked but never took his eyes from his opponent.

"Got it."

Alison turned and ran out of the door.

Father watched her retreat. She wouldn't get far. He knew this.

She made it farther down the tunnels, back towards where they'd come from. The chimeras were nowhere to be found. That was odd.

She fell to her knees and grasped her chest.

"Stop. Stop it." She pleaded. "You bitch." She cursed the princess in her head before she leaned against the wall and felt her vision fading.

* * *

"She's alive!" A shrill voice pierced through the veil.

Silver eyes snapped open and stared at two figures in front of her. A young girl with long black braided pig tails, and a man with white hair and a large scar on his face.

"Who are you?" How long had it been since she heard her own voice out loud?

"The better question is, who are you?" The girl took a fighting stance. "And why are you down here?"

"I was brought here." She lifted herself off the floor. The muscles were stiff but the sensation of feeling made it almost enjoyable.

"Your chi feels wrong." The young girl stated menacingly.

"Of course it does. I'm a human Philosopher's stone." She stated simply. "I am Asta, the former princess of Xerxes and wife of Emperor Cho of Xing."

"That's impossible! That would make you centuries old!" The older man growled, looking as though he may pounce at any moment.

"Calm yourselves." Asta sighed. "I'm not your enemy. He's further on. You may join me if you like. I plan on separating every limb from his body." She walked back towards the inner sanctum.

* * *

Edward was trying very hard to keep his wits about him. His brother and himself were trapped under a giant green monster, they'd just watched their friend give himself over to a Homunculus, he had barely escaped death by escaping Gluttony's fake gate, Alison was god knows where around here, hopefully safe, he'd seen his brother's flesh and blood body in the Gate, and this smug asshole looked like his dad. Oh, and he couldn't perform alchemy. So there was that. Things weren't going great. Possibly the only thing keeping him from the brink of a psychological break down was his need to survive. And maybe he'd started developing a tolerance for this crazy bullshit when he found a certain brunette in the woods.

The door opening caught everyone's attention. Edward wished he could throttle the scarred man that walked through that door, but Envy had him thoroughly trapped. With Scar was a young girl. She was the one that hit him in the train yard! She had helped Scar escape! Then in walked Alison.

"Why are you back? We told you to leave!" Edward screamed at the woman. She stared at him coldly and even from the distance between them he could feel something wasn't right.

"Princess, I was waiting for you to return my sacrifice to me." Father smiled.

"It wasn't easy." She smirked. The voice that came out was not Alison's. "But I managed to put her in time out so I can see to your demise, personally."

"Hold on just a damn minute!" Ed yelled at the two.

"What happened to Alison?" Al demanded to know.

"She's fine." Asta rolled her eyes. "I'm just in charge for now. Her eyes fell on the new Greed who now possessed the body of Ling Yao. "Oh? Friend of yours?" Her smile could only be described as seductive. "You remind me of my late husband. Come see me when all of this is over." She winked.

Ed's jaw nearly hit the floor. Had she just hit on Ling?!

"This is growing tiresome." Father sighed before motioning for his cronies to attack.

Greed and Gluttony took the others on while Asta set her sights on the Father himself.

Asta fed off the adrenaline pumping through the body she controlled like a drug addict. It felt so amazing! Even the pain was exhilarating. She tasted blood when a blow from one of Father's attacks busted a lip. She moved so freely with the assistance of her alchemy in the fight. She hadn't felt so alive since…well, since she was last alive. She was going to have a difficult time relinquishing control of this body.

Father had severely injured the scarred man to the point where he had to retreat. Envy had joined the fight at one point, allowing the Elrics some freedom. Fortunate for the young girl that was with Scar. She had also been injured and Alphonse was able to protect her from any further damage.

She charged one more time at Father. He was in her grasp. If she made this blow, she could weaken him substantially and the rest would be a breeze.

Asta stopped in mid-strike and found herself immobilized by transmuted wires around her. She felt the entire body seize up as electric impulses shot through it. The electricity seemed to break her concertation.

Father approached the apprehended woman and loomed over her.

The Elrics yelled for her to move, but she seemed incapable of doing so.

"If you can learn to behave, I won't come for you until the Promised Day." Father scolded.

"Go…fuck yourself." She twitched as another pulse ran through her. She could feel the flesh starting to burn.

Father placed an open palm on her forehead. The crackle and sparks of a transmutation surrounded his hand and her head. The woman let out a cry before going limp.

"Stop it!" Edward made an attempt to run towards her but was swiped away by Envy, sending him tumbling across the room.

The binds left the women's body and she fell to the floor like a corpse. Edward pulled himself off the floor and called the name of his friend. Pleaded for her to get up. What had that monster done to her?! His heart was pounding and he felt so utterly useless.

A groan came from the body on the floor. She moved slowly and rolled on to her back. Brown eyes flitted open to see Father standing over her. She let out a startled yelp and scrambled to her feet and backed away.

"The princess has been silenced for now." Father told her. "Now, you and I can talk."

"About what?" Her voice was raspy and shaking.

"Our future." He grinned.

"I-I don't want to talk about that." She stammered and shook her head.

His expression darkened as he stared her down.

"It would be most beneficial for not only you, but your companions, to behave yourselves." He warned. "I only need your friends alive. That doesn't mean I won't tear the limbs off of Alphonse and snap Edward's spine."

Alison screwed her eyes shut and squeezed her hands into a fist.

"What do you want?" She finally asked.

"Ali, stop!" Edward demanded.

"Shut it!" She snapped back. She straightened herself and stared down the Homunculus. "What do you want?" Father was silent. "Are you going to answer me?!" She shouted. "Because if it's me you want, I'm right fucking here!"

"I don't intend to keep you prisoner." He spoke. "Unless you become more troublesome running free than you do in a cage. Is that understood?"

"Fine, whatever. Can you let us go now? I'm sick of looking at Envy's ugly face."

"How dare you!" Envy growled.

"Take them to Wrath." Father turned to Envy. "He'll take care of the rest."

* * *

Alison was taken to a bathroom in HQ to clean herself up and given a change of clothes. The Elrics were taken to another bathroom to do the same. Ali sat there in the Fuhrer's office with the brothers and Mustang. She sat quietly while he threatened them, threatened Winry, told them exactly what they were, and were not to do.

She walked quietly out of the building, didn't speak a word when they arrived back at the dorms. She went to her room and shut the door. She emerged minutes later in different clothes and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Alphonse asked her.

"I'm starving and need a drink." She replied flatly.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Ed's voiced made her hand pause on the doorknob. Alison turned to look at the blonde. She saw the anger in his eyes.

"Do you _really_ think you're the one to talk to _me_ about shit decisions right now?" Her words came out in an icy hiss. "Now, I'm going to go drink. You're welcome to join me if you want. I _promise_ I won't do anything stupid while I'm out. But I guess promises mean something different in this world." She said before shooting Edward a glare and walking out, slamming the door behind her.

"I _told_ you lying to her was a bad idea!" Alphonse scolded his brother.

* * *

Alison pushed her now empty plate to the side and focused on her drink. She had a lot on her mind, and hopefully she would find some answers or at least some peace at the bottom of her glass. Or the bottle.

"Mind if I join you?" The smooth voice of Roy Mustang snapped her attention to the man in front of her. He had a glass and a bottle in his hand and dressed in civilian clothing. Even out of uniform he made a point to still look well put together. Alison waved her hand dismissively and took a sip of her drink. He pulled a chair out and sat across from her.

"Where are the Elrics?" He asked absently.

"Dunno." She replied. "Left them back at the dorms before I strangled them."

"They do have that effect on people." He chuckled. He offered out the bottle of liquor when her glass was empty. She held it out and allowed him to fill it.

"Did Ed ever tell you about what happened in Kujec?" She asked suddenly.

"I read his report on the incident." Was the formal answer.

"But did he tell you about what happened when I was in the hospital?"

"I don't believe he went over anything of much significance other than your recovery." Mustang raised an interested eyebrow.

"I was in, I guess what you'd call a coma or something. But it felt like I was dreaming and I kept seeing these scenarios playing out in front of me. One of them, the city was in rubble and the Elrics were dead. I saw Ed's corpse and Al's seal shattered. It all looked so absolutely real." She explained. She paused and took a drink. "I think about that scene every single day. And every day I wonder if it was just a dream or a premonition of some sort."

"What makes you think it was more than just a dream?"

"Aside from how vivid it all was…I don't know. Maybe there were just some other things that I saw that I wish were premonitions. More pleasant visions."

"What else happened in the hospital?"

"I performed alchemy without using a circle or clapping or even touching anything." She said and looked at a spot on the table. "In a moment of utter panic brought on by another part of the dream, I just envisioned it, and it was like I had all the information I needed, and it just happened."

"Is that really what's weighing on your mind?" He asked. "Or is it just from today's events?"

"When I heard the explosions going on the other day when Gluttony was caught, all I could think of was that dream where they were dead. And this fear of losing them…I can't trust my own decisions anymore."

For the first time, she saw Mustang actually look sympathetic. He poured her another glass after she gulped down the rest. She swallowed the liquor and shook her head as it burned down her throat.

"How good are you at keeping secrets?" She asked. She should stop talking. But the liquor was making Mustang incredibly easy to open up to.

"I'd say it's a specialty." He smirked behind his glass.

"I may have found a way home." She dropped the bombshell so suddenly that Mustang nearly choked on his drink. Finding a way to intentionally open the Gate and pass through it was an incredible feat. "But I'm not sure if I'm going to take it or not." She clutched her glass tightly. "How stupid is that?" She sniffed. "To throw away the chance of ever seeing my family again…because of one person?" She felt her tears slide down her face and land on the table surface.

"The only reason I've come so far, the only reason I'm alive," Mustang spoke to her softly. "Is because of my trust in the ones who follow me, their trust in me, and following my intuition."

Alison wiped her face. She wished there was some kind of easy answer. She wished there was a way to travel back and forth at will and then she could go home but come back to visit. But it was never that simple. She had to make a choice. And when would she have to make that choice? Tomorrow? Months from now?

"I don't think I know what decision my intuition is telling me to make." She sighed.

"Hmm. I think you do." Mustang smiled behind his glass.

He was right. She did.

"Let me drive you back." He offered and placed some money on the table. "And I'll cover the tab."

"Careful, Colonel. I'll start to think this is a date." The brunette chuckled. The man had come off as such a smug, self-righteous ass in the beginning. She always enjoyed seeing the softer sides of the people the Elric's trusted. "Thanks, but I'm not ready to go back yet." She told him. "They're mad at me, I'm mad at them, Asta went and did some shit I didn't even know she was capable of…"

"Another round, then?" Mustang offered the bottle.

"Until the only thing I can think about is the room spinning." She grinned and offered her cup.

After probably too much alcohol, Mustang was able to convince the young woman it was time to call it quits. It was another feat to convince the woman to let him drive her to the dorms instead of her walking the entire way.

Mustang parked in front of the dorms. He got out with the intention of going around and opening the car door for the woman, after all, he was nothing if not a gentleman. But she was already out of the vehicle and walking to the front door.

"Can you make it to your room okay?" Mustang asked. He wasn't confident in her current abilities.

"I'm good." She offered him a thumbs up.

"Let me walk you up." He sighed. It could easily be explained away as being courteous if anyone were to question why a Colonel was walking a drunk teenager to her room. He truly was only looking after her safety.

They reached the room she shared with the Elrics and she seemed to pause in front of the door. She seemed to have a moment of sobriety.

"Roy?" She called his first name so uncertainly. It took the man by surprise. "Am I an idiot?"

"You're passionate." He replied. She chuckled and placed a hand on the doorknob.

"So, yes."

"Passionate doesn't mean idiotic." He told her. "You aren't foolish for making your decisions on your emotions. It only becomes foolish when emotion is the only thing you used to make decisions."

"It's selfish though." She said softly. "No matter which path I take, it's selfish one way or another. It just depends on which side I end up hurting the most." She let out a chuckle. "Maybe I'll really fuck things up and just hurt _everyone_ I care about."

She stood quietly for a moment. Roy knew there was nothing he could say to ease her mind or her guilt. He'd been there. However, he was lucky to have people around him that believed in him and kept him on his path. She had that too, she just needed to let them help her.

"Thanks for the ride and the drinks." She broke the silence and opened the door.

The two stared at Edward standing in the doorway. It became clear he had been trying to listen to their conversation.

Alison let out an irritated sigh and pushed past the blonde.

"Goodnight." She said and went to her room.

Ed sighed and whispered a curse under his breath before looking at Mustang.

"Goodnight, Fullmetal." Mustang said before turning to leave.

Edward didn't bother knocking. He barged into her room and shut the door behind him. Alison was in the process of removing her clothes before bed.

"If I wanted you in here, I would've invited you." She growled. She stood in her underwear and glared at the blonde. When he made no attempt to move, she rolled her eyes and moved to the dresser to grab her pajamas.

Edward moved suddenly, and she was briefly reminded that there was a reason he won so many fights with dangerous people. He was fast, his movements always certain and fluid. The way he just seemed to be able to move her to his will, coupled with her inebriation made her head spin as he pulled her towards him and roughly pressed his lips to her. She wanted to be mad. She did. It wasn't fair that every time he kissed her all she could do was want more. When he pulled his lips from her own, he pulled her closely against his chest.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again." He whispered in her hair. She felt her anger melt away as he held her and she clung to the back if his shirt.

"Me too." She whimpered.

Edward led her to the bed and they sat down. Alison moved to rest her back against the head board and wrapped her arms around her legs. Edward sat cross legged across from her.

"The dreams I had in the Kujec hospital," she started. "I told you about the one where you and Al were dead. I still have nightmares about it. And when there was so much commotion while you fought Scar the other day, it was all I could think of." She told him.

Edward sat quietly. What could he say? He made the choice he thought was right. He just wanted her to be safe. And she ended up facing off with Father anyways. Despite his best efforts, he wasn't going to be able to keep her out of this.

"Listen to me, nagging at you for playing too rough." She chuckled. "So stupid."

"What else did you see in Kujec?" He asked suddenly.

"Huh?" She raised an eyebrow.

"There was another dream you had. But you wouldn't tell us what it was." He refreshed her memory.

How the hell did he remember that?

She was quiet and looked away from him. She remembered it vividly. But she wasn't so sure she was drunk enough to let that one slip just yet.

"When Ling and I were inside Gluttony, it was…unreal." He said. She raised an eyebrow. No way was he changing subjects that easily. "It was like this separate realm outside of this one. With no beginning or end. It was dark and full of blood. I was terrified to be honest. I've bit off more than I could chew too many times to count. But I couldn't punch my way out of this one. But at least you and Al were safe.

"Until Ling told me you'd shown up and I worried what would happen to you. Envy tried to kill us inside. And all I could think of as he tried to swallow me, was how I failed. I didn't get Al's body back. I took away his childhood. I couldn't keep you safe. I couldn't make Winry happy. And fuck, if for a brief moment I didn't just want to _let_ him swallow me. But then I…" He chuckled nervously. "It's so crazy but I _swear_ I heard your voice. I swear I heard you tell me not to give up. And I knew I couldn't let him kill me."

This was what Edward did. When he couldn't immediately get her to be open with him, he shared something vulnerable about himself. It was his idea of equivalent exchange _. I'll show you my scars if you show me yours._

She sighed and leaned the back of her head against the headboard.

"I came across a house in the middle of the void." She told him. "It was nice. Looked like something out of a magazine. Inside it was empty and the colors were faded. Except for one room. One room had furniture and the colors were lively. It was a bedroom. I saw myself in a mirror and I was dressed in this formal gown and I looked a little older. There was a picture on the vanity of us." She paused and took a deep breath. Maybe he wouldn't see the flush on her face from this angle. "You walked in the room. You looked older too. In formal military attire…you told me I looked beautiful. And we needed to hurry or we'd be late."

"Late for what?" He asked carefully. She shrugged.

"Dunno. You walked out the door and there was nothing but the void again."

Edward processed her words carefully.

"So, the dream you didn't want to share was of us…together. As in, a couple." He stated carefully.

"I guess." She shrugged again. "I assume that's what we were."

"Were we…married, or…?"

"I don't know, dude." She sighed. "I wasn't exactly looking for wedding bands."

"Why didn't you want to tell me?"

"It felt embarrassing. We'd only known each other for a couple of months and my subconscious was projecting images of a happily ever after with you." She finally looked at him and gave a half-hearted grin. "How do you just explain that to someone you barely know? I hadn't even kissed you yet."

"How did…you feel about it?" He asked cautiously. He watched her bite her lip and a small smile pull at the corner of her lips before she locked eyes with him.

"I liked it." Alison finally said. "For the first time, I had…" She considered he words carefully. "Something else to look forward to. It threw a lot of things in to question about what I should look forward to most. Going home, or possibly having a life here…with you."

Edward felt his heart jump in his throat and his chest tingled. Then he felt something else take over him. He leaned forward and grabbed her by the ankle yanking her towards him.

She let out a yelp as she slipped down the headboard until her back hit the mattress. In an instant Edward was over her, pressed against her, his lips covering hers. The chill than ran down her spine when his automail touched her bare side brought back the realization that she was still in her underwear. She noticed this for only a brief moment before she decided she didn't care. She let out a small moan when he moved to her neck and nipped at the sensitive flesh. His flesh hand moved down her body and slid down her thigh before pulling her leg up, bringing them closer together. She let out a strangled gasp as a jolt of heat shot through her body.

Edward had to stop himself. He was getting carried away. He was losing control. And she wasn't exactly sober. It took more effort than he wanted to admit to stop her hand when it reached for his belt. He caught the questioning look in her eyes, unsure as to why he stopped her.

"You're drunk." He stated softly and removed himself from his position over her. His body missed the heat of hers.

"The world is gonna end." She said smoothly and sat up. She practically crawled in his lap and wrapped her arms around him.

This wasn't good. He barely had the strength to stop himself as it was. Now he had to find the will to stop _her_.

"There's still so many things I want to do before then." She whispered before nibbling at his earlobe. "So many things I want to do _with you_."

Edward whimpered and had to think of a dozen Alchemical equations to stop anymore blood flow from running further south.

"It's not ending tonight." His voice was gruff as he carefully removed the half naked woman from his lap. "But you're still drunk. And as much…" He took a shaking breath as he looked her up and down, catching the way her breasts moved as she breathed, the plumpness of her lips, and the look of absolute arousal in her eyes. He had to look away. "As much as I feel I would enjoy doing those things with you…I'd prefer you be sober when we do."

"When?" She repeated his word with a raised eyebrow. Not if. When.

"I…I really should get to bed." He stammered and quickly stood from the bed. His loose fitting black pants did very little to hide his excitement. And his face did little to hide his reluctance to leave the willing and wanting woman.

"Goodnight." He said before walking to the door. He stopped midway before turning back around and approaching her again. He leaned down and kissed her deeply one last time before spinning around and leaving the room.

Alison laid back in bed and the world did a quick spin. Maybe he was right…she wasn't as sober as she thought.

She climbed under the covers and tried to still the world so she could sleep. She faintly remembered hearing the shower turn on before she drifted off.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: In case anyone is wondering, I will not be writing any explicit sexual details for underage characters. Underage by U.S. standards. When they are 18 or older, I will probably be more explicit. I also have no intention to follow canon and kill off Mae's Hughes.

* * *

Alison rolled over and the world rolled with her. She groaned and held her head. She needed water. She opened her eyes and saw a glass next to her bed. She grabbed it and eagerly drained it. She didn't remember getting that. Had Ed left it for her?

Wait a minute…she'd tried to…

She whimpered and pulled the blanket over her head. She practically threw herself at him. Yet she still found herself biting her lip and wishing it hadn't ended when it did. A few more memories to replay would be much better than her imagination. She felt a warmth coiling in her gut and she decided it was time to get out of bed. She needed a shower to clear her head.

The shower made her thoughts clearer. They washed away the clouds of lust and infatuation and she realized what she wanted. She wanted Edward. Physically, emotionally, mentally. She wanted them to stand by each others side, ready to fight whatever monsters they may face. Whether that monster was a Homunculus or a leaky faucet.

She remembered the talks she was given with her peers in school. The small town with a large Southern Baptist community only had interests in talking about abstinence when it came to sex. She couldn't help but laugh at the memory of being told it was only something to be shared after marriage, with the approval of God. Anything else would be a sin and would be worthy of punishment in the form of diseases. What a ridiculous concept. She didn't miss that about home. She refused to believe these feelings for Edward were any form of sin. Even if they weren't meant to stay together, her feelings were still real.

She exited the bathroom, feeling fresher and less hung over than she had earlier. She heard voices coming from the brothers' room and went to investigate.

"Dr. Knox says she may be well enough for travel in a week or so, but she still doesn't need to stress herself too much." Edward told his brother.

"How are we going to get her to Resembool?" Al asked. "It's too obvious travelling with us."

"Make her look like me." Alison broke into the conversation. She had no idea what they were talking about but the answer seemed obvious. "Brown wig and some of my clothes. Keep the face out of sight and you got yourself a disguise."

"She's…missing an arm." Edward said hesitantly. She narrowed her eyes at the two.

"Who is missing an arm?"

"One of Ling's guards. Lan Fan." Al told her.

"Jesus, what happened?" Alison gasped.

"Bradley." Was the simple response.

"We need to get her a new arm." Ed spoke. "We need to get her to Resembool."

"Isn't Rush Valley closer?"

"Too populated."

"Hmm." Alison leaned against the door frame with a hand to her chin in thought. "I'll take her." She suggested.

"What?" The brothers almost spoke in unison.

"Get me a car. I need a few other things for a disguise. And I'll get her to Resembool."

"Do you even know how to get there?"

"This country has road maps right? I can read a map, dude."

The brothers shared a thoughtful look before agreeing.

Alison sat across from Lan Fan and applied her make up. The red wig looked surprisingly natural. She was extremely curious as to where Mustang procured a women's red wig, but she would get answers to that another time.

"This feels silly." Lan Fan muttered.

"Yeah, but you look cute with freckles." Alison said while dusting over the drawn freckles to make them look natural.

Alison herself was wearing a blonde wig.

"Perfect. Different person." Alison admired her work.

Getting out of Central would be the hardest part. The military was still looking for Xingese fugitives.

They came across a road block just before they reached city limits. A soldier approached the vehicle and stared Alison down.

"Where are you heading?" He asked.

"South."

The solider looked in the back seat to see the other woman looking away and hiding her face.

"You! Girl! Show your face!" He demanded.

"Sir, please. She's very upset."

"We're looking for fugitives and I'm going to check every car that comes through here."

"Dehlia, dear," Alison sighed.

Lan Fan looked toward the man cautiously.

"See? My sister lost her arm while the military was hunting down these fugitives!" Alison raised her voice at the officers. "Now we have to take her to a specialist because the military refuses to help her! Look at her! She's in pain and she's afraid!" The soldier quickly looked away. "You wanted to see her! Look at her! When will you people stop hurting civilians like us!? What more must you take?!" Alison's voice was catching the attention of the other soldiers.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am." The soldier recoiled. "I wish you a safe journey and a speedy recovery." He backed away and held his arm to the side to signify giving her permission to pass.

"Thank you, darlin." She purred. She put the vehicle in gear and left the city of Central.

"What did I tell you? Piece of cake." She grinned at Lan Fan.

* * *

"They should've been here by now." Edward paced the Rockbell establishment.

"Stop wearing a rut in my rug and sit down. You won't accomplish anything like that." Pinako ordered.

The sound of a vehicle approaching caught everyone's attention.

"Is that them?" Al looked out the window.

"It worked!" Ed announced gleefully.

The brothers ran out to greet the women as they pulled up to the house.

Alphonse helped Lan Fan out of the car.

"I was starting to worry. What took you?" Ed asked Alison.

"A little traffic getting out of the city. Nothing to be concerned about." She winked and pat the side of his face.

"Hey!" Alison turned to the house to see Winry waving at her enthusiastically. She'd arrived a few days prior. She ran to the disguised brunette and gave her a hug. "I'm so glad you made it! I swear, another minute and I'm sure Granny was going to knock Ed out if didn't stop fussing!"

"Edward? Fussy? I don't believe it." She said with feigned disbelief. The girls giggled at Ed's dirty look.

"So you're the girl these kids are making such a fuss about." An older woman approached her. She was short with grey hair and glasses. "Pinako Rockbell." She extended a hand. "But they just call me Granny."

"Alison Rigby. Thank you for welcoming us into your home." Alison smiled and shook her hand.

"Let's head in." Pinako motioned to the group and walked back to the house.

They set Lan Fan up in her room. They made sure she was comfortable. Edward sat her down and explained how the surgery would go, how painful it would be. She needed to be physically and mentally prepared.

It was difficult listening to him talk about the pain of surgery. He'd had to undergo it with both an arm and leg. Lan Fan listened carefully, fire and determination clear in her eyes.

Alison had removed the wig and her make up hours ago. She sat on the front porch alone and watched the setting sun.

"Lan Fan said you ran into a little trouble in Central." Edward said as he exited the house and sat beside her.

"Nothing I couldn't handle." She smirked and nudged him with her arm. "Lan Fan…I wish I could be so fearless. She cut off her own arm to save Ling. And now she's ready to have surgery to save him. Incredible." Alison muttered her admiration for the woman.

"Are you kidding?" Ed asked incredulously. "You _are_ fearless. Almost stupidly so!"

"Hey!"

"I mean, what kind of idiot goes running _towards_ destruction and mayhem?"

"You, dingus." She muttered.

"And you! You ran towards the fight with Gluttony. You ran towards the fight with Greed. You tricked Envy! You looked a powerful Homunculus in the face and said 'yeah, whatever' and you're going to wish you were more fearless?"

"Yeah, but she like, cut her fucking arm off." Alison made a face and rubbed her shoulder. "That's some brutal shit."

"You're an idiot." He stated.

"Takes one to know one." She stuck her tongue out. Ed sighed and slapped his face with the palm of his hand.

"I can't keep you out of trouble, can I?" He said softly.

"Heh. Even if I wanted to, pretty confident trouble will find me regardless." She leaned against him. "Tell you what, you help me get out of trouble, and I'll help you do the same. Have each other's backs, ya know? Equivalent Exchange. Deal?"

Ed smiled at her fondly and put an arm around her.

"Deal."

* * *

Lan Fan's surgery was postponed. Heavy storms moved in and were expected to last a few days. Winry said the humidity could affect the calibrations.

Alison laid on the couch and listened to the rain and the thunder. It was such a soothing sound. She was close to dosing off when she heard mismatched steps approaching. She sat up to see Edward walking in with a bowl and a couple of towels.

"Whatcha doin?" She asked and moved her feet so he could sit down next to her. He was clad in only his boxers. She'd seem him in less before, but seeing his body still made her heart jump. Especially at the memory of having touched the areas hidden beneath his boxers with her bare hands.

He sat the bowl down and she noticed it was filled with water, steam rising from it.

"Storms always make the areas around my ports hurt. Heat tends to help." He said while dipping the towels in the water and ringing out the excess. He put one on his leg and one on his shoulder and leaned forward with a sigh. His hair was loose and dammit, was there ever a moment he didn't look attractive? He massaged the area on his leg where the towel didn't reach and grimaced.

"Where is everyone?" Ali asked absently.

"Winry is doing some final measurements for Lan Fan and fine tuning a few things. Pinako is working on some stuff for other clients. And I think Al is helping Winry. Lan Fan should be resting." Ed told her. "Sorry, I know this place isn't as exciting as Central." He said with a grin.

"It's nice actually." She smiled back. "My home is in a pretty rural area too. We still live pretty close to a large town, but our house is in a rural neighborhood. I always enjoyed it. My brother and I used to walk down to the pond on my neighbor's land and fish."

"There's a river that runs through not far from here. Al and I used to fish there a lot as kids." Ed told her. "It's been a long time since I fished." He mused aloud.

"When the storms stop we should go to the river." Ali suggested. Ed smiled and nodded in agreement. "Too bad the house is full." She sighed. "Or I could try that Edward Elric method you showed me and maybe could take your mind off the soreness."

Ed's face reddened and for a moment he cursed that there were others in the house and that they really didn't have any privacy. Lan Fan was given the infirmary. Pinako and Winry had their own rooms. Leaving only one room left that Edward and his brother were sharing with Alison. So even sneaking away to their bedroom, despite it being obvious what they'd be up to, wasn't completely private.

"Let me try something else instead." She said and moved closer on the couch. He froze, unsure of what she had planned. She removed the cloth on his shoulder and gently massaged the are where flesh met metal. "Does this help any?"

He nodded his head wordless and closed his eyes. He had tried massaging the areas himself before, but it felt much better having another person do it.

She massaged around his shoulder and his back, carefully listening for any sounds he made that would indicate pain or pleasure. After a few minutes she reached around to massage the part of his chest where the automail met.

She jumped when he snatched her hand and squeezed. He was breathing a little heavier now. Had she caused him more pain?

"What's wrong?" She asked, worry clear in her eyes and voice.

"It's…it's just a bit much right now." He nearly whispered.

She brushed his bangs out of his face to look at him. He was blushing. Oh…whoops.

"I'm sorry. I was really trying to help. Not…you know." She blushed as she looked down. She quickly looked away from the growing bulge poorly hidden by his boxers. Her face felt hot. She really hadn't meant to.

Edward quietly excused himself and left the room. Alison was left feeling guilty and embarrassed. Until Edward reappeared, full dressed in black slacks and a long-sleeved black shirt with his signature red jacket folded over his arm.

"Grab an umbrella." He said and motioned for her to follow him out the door. Alison quickly put her shoes on and did as he requested.

They walked close together under the umbrella for awhile, entering a heavily wooded area not far from the Rockbell home.

"Ed, where are we going?" Alison finally asked. He hadn't said a word about it.

"Not much further. I hope it's still there." Was his only answer.

They eventually came across a small structure in the woods. It was actually very well built. It was built like a small playhouse, complete with windows and a door. It looked a little worn down, the roof sagged and the windows were covered in grime. Edward wordlessly approached the house. He stood maybe a foot taller than it. He clapped his hands together and placed them on the structure. Within moments the house looked new again. He opened the small door and turned towards his companion.

"After you." He motioned her inside.

She raised and eyebrow and gave him an amused smile before bending down enough to clear the doorway. She entered the small house and it appeared as though his alchemy had repaired the inside as well. The floor was made from smooth wood and the walls were perfectly held together. It looked like he'd just built it.

"Al and I used to come play out here when we were kids. Or if we were mad at each other one of us would run off here." Ed told her as he entered and shut the door behind him.

"How did two kids make such an impressive club house?" She asked, sitting on her knees.

"Al and I have been pretty talented alchemists from an early age. And we found some books on construction and architecture, we got some materials, and alchemy helped with the rest." He shrugged and came to sit across from her. "I remember being able to stand up in it though." He chuckled.

The inside was dark, the only slivers of light coming from the small windows. And even then the light was minimal due to the canopy of trees and the heavy rain and clouds. But Edward's golden eyes somehow still seemed to glow and she still seemed to be able to see him perfectly.

"If they realize we're gone isn't this the first place they'll look?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Maybe." He shrugged. "But I'm not concerned about that right now." He said and leaned forward to kiss her. He pulled her forward and against his chest as he ravished her lips.

The next thing she new, she was on her back with him seated perfectly between her legs. She felt cloth beneath her and realized it was his jacket. When had he put that there?

She didn't think about it long before teeth were nipping at her collar bone, a hand was climbing up her shirt and his hips were grinding against hers. She pulled at his shirt, a shiver running through him as he nails raked up his back.

It was there in that little play house that they made love for the first time. It was the best mixture of awkward, pain, and ecstasy. It hurt at first, and she bled a little. But her body soon accommodated him perfectly. His already generously endowed size seemed larger when it entered her.

Once the initial clumsiness wore off, they moved together like it wasn't new to them at all. The way he seemed to move just the right way against her, when and where to kiss her, the way he would moan her name against her skin. His name spilled from her lips in smalls gasps and moans that let him know he was doing something right. The look of pure ecstasy on her face nearly drove him over the edge every time she said his name.

The two lied together wrapped up in the red coat and basked in the afterglow of their first time together. They were content to hold each other and listen to the other's breathing and the steady sound of the rain.

Alison lifted her head to meet his golden eyes and smiled. Her eyes held unspoken words and her lips twitched slightly like she might speak. Edward partly hoped she would say those words. But instead she stretched to kiss him deeply. He knew the kiss was speaking those words for her. They were scary words to say. Even he was terrified of saying it.

"We should get back. If they've noticed we're gone, we'll have some questions to answer." She said softly.

"Hmmm." He hummed against her neck. "Just a bit longer like this."

She smiled and held him closer. She couldn't argue with his request.

* * *

The storms had cleared. Lan Fan's surgery had been a success.

Edward, Alphonse, and Alison sat on the riverbank with their fishing poles. They were waiting for Winry to finish up some work and join them.

If anyone had wondered where Edward and Alison had gone for those few hours the other day, no one questioned it.

Winry approached the three with a smile.

"Hey! We have your pole ready!" Al greeted her. "Ed's mad because the fish I caught was bigger than his."

Edward grumbled in response.

"Thanks, Al!" Winry smiled and took the pole. "I hate to interrupt, but Granny said she needed some help moving a few things."

"We're on it." Ed replied and stretched as he stood. "We'll be back soon, okay?"

The girls nodded and watched as the brothers walked away.

Winry sat down next to Alison and cast her line in the water. They shared a moment of peaceful silence before Winry spoke.

"Have you made any progress on finding a way home?"

"Sorta…" Alison replied with a weak smile. They fell into another silence.

"So…Ed seems to really like you." Winry watched a blush dust the other woman's cheeks. "You like him, too, don't you?"

"…Yeah. A lot." She replied softly.

"I like to think of you as a friend. I think you're a great person and I don't think I could think of anyone that fits with Ed romantically better than you do. You've brought out a side of him I've never seen. In a positive way." Winry said. Her tone told Alison the direction was about to change.

"But?"

"But…I don't want to see him get hurt. I've seen those boys hurt too many times."

"I know, Winry." She sighed. "I never intended for things to develop between us like they did. It wasn't even a possibility in my mind. It just…happened."

"I know this is asking a lot of you…but you could stay here." Winry suggested carefully. She knew it was almost like suggesting Al stay in his armor to prevent the brothers from facing so much danger.

"I've… given that a lot of thought actually."

Winry was surprised by the answer.

"I just don't know what the right choice is." She sighed and watched her fishing line cause ripples in the running water. "My family is back home. My parents. My friends. Everything I've ever known. And they have no idea what happened to me. For all they know I'm either dead or locked up in someone's basement. It just seems so cruel to let them suffer like that if I know how to stop it. But on the other hand…this place isn't so bad. I kind of feel… _happy_ here. I just don't know the right answer and it's terrifying."

A gentle hand cane to rest on her shoulder and Alison turned to look at Winry. The other woman smiled sympathetically.

"I know you're scared. Uncertainty is always scary. But you also have friends here you can talk to. And I know you're afraid to bring this up to Edward because you're afraid to hurt him. I understand and I'm so happy you care so much for him. But you owe it to him to be honest about your feelings, don't you think?"

Alison smiled softly at her friend and felt tears burning at her eyes.

"You're right." She nodded. "Geeze, back home fairytales make falling in love seem so easy. With flowers, dancing, and birds singing. Like this instantaneous feeling that just falls into place and everyone just goes with it because it was meant to be. They don't show how scary it is. How uncertain about things it can make you feel. How it can make you feel more vulnerable than a baby, yet stronger than Hercules all at the same time. I've never felt so confused and yet so sure of myself." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"Oh…" Winry had a teasing smirk. "So we're using the word 'love' now, are we? Have you said it to Ed?" She gasped, eager like a gossiping school girl. "Has he said it to you?!"

"Stop! No! We haven't said anything like that!"

"But you do, don't you?"

"I mean…" Alison rubbed her neck. "That's such a strong word."

"I know. And it's accurate, isn't it?" She grinned. Alison mumbled something under her breath that Winry took as a 'yes' and seemed to become so giddy over the whole thing.

Maybe it was because if they loved each other, she would choose to stay. And the Elrics would get their bodies restored and Ed could _finally_ find some semblance of happiness.

"Stop!" Alison ordered her again. She was so loud about it.

Yes. If she had to admit it, she loved Edward. The words were on the tip of her tongue the afternoon after they'd made love for the first time. But she was so afraid to say those words, so she kissed him instead.

Something in the water pulled at Alison's pole and she took the opportunity to change the subject.

Winry and Alison walked back to the house with the fish they'd caught. Winry was wearing a big stupid grin like she'd accomplished something by prying too deep. And Alison just looked annoyed.

They returned to the house and Al offered to begin preparing the fish to be cooked.

Alison said she was going to take a walk. She had a lot of things to think about, but she wasn't going to share that with them. Not yet at least.

Dinner was close to being ready and Alison hadn't returned. Winry suggested Ed go look for her. He followed her suggestion and headed off in the direction he'd seen her go.

He walked down the road for awhile before he spotted her, standing on a familiar hill, overlooking the charred remains of a house. Why was she there? Did she know what that place used to be? How would she know?

"Hey." Ed's voice startled her as he approached her from behind. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Just…looking. I don't know. I saw this place and was curious." She replied.

He came to her side and stared at the rubble.

"This was our house."

The look of surprise of her face told him she hadn't known after all.

"We burned it down after I joined the military. Before we started our journey to get our bodies back." He told her.

"Why burn it?" She asked.

"So we could never turn back. So we would have to keep moving. We wouldn't have a place left to go home to."

Alison was silent. What could she say to that? Seemed like a waste of a perfectly good house, but she kept that to herself.

"Come on. I want to show you something." He said and turned away from the house.

She followed him back to the road and down a little ways. Not far from the house was a cemetery. She followed the blonde through the gravestones until he stopped in front of one that read "Trisha Elric 1878-1904."

She was so young. She was only twenty-six when she died, leaving behind two young boys.

"I remember standing here with Alphonse when I first had the idea of human transmutation." Edward stated softly. "I couldn't accept that she was gone forever. I thought…" He clenched his fists. "I thought I could fix anything with alchemy. But I couldn't. I couldn't bring my mother back. I almost lost my brother. I couldn't save Nina…"

Nina…she remembered him mentioning her briefly before. Her heart broke for the young man and tears built up in his eyes.

Silently, she placed her hand around his clenched fist. He relaxed and she slid her hand into his. He squeezed it tightly.

She tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. So she did what felt right. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. Without hesitation he did the same and nuzzled his face in her hair. He let his tears fall freely as he let her comfort him.

* * *

Edward had had nightmares before. He was no stranger to them. That still didn't stop him from waking in a cold sweat, shaking, with his heart pounding in his chest. It wasn't a new dream. He saw images of his mother before she morphed into the creature they'd created in their childhood home. He saw his brother disappearing before his eyes during the transmutation that changed everything. He saw Nina laughing and playing one moment, then calling is name as the chimera she'd been turned in to. Then in front of the wall that was covered in her blood. These nightmares weren't new. But they still unsettled him each time.

"Ed?" He heard his name called softly from the bed next to his. He turned to see soft brown eyes looking at him with evident concern. He glanced over to the other side of the room. He didn't seem to disturb Alphonse.

"What's wrong?" Alison spoke again and slid out her bed. She approached his bed and sat on the edge.

"It's fine." He tried to smile. "Just a bad dream."

She frowned at him and motioned for him to move over in his bed. He did so without protest. She climbed under the covers and laid on her side. He followed suit and laid down to face her. She took his flesh hand and held it tightly.

"Sometimes, if I have a bad dream, it helps me to hold on to something real. Something to ground me to reality." She said and brought the back of his knuckles to her lips and pressed gentle kisses along the calloused skin. His heart fluttered and he smiled. The memory of the night he had done the same for her flashing in his mind. He gently squeezed her hand. Their relationship had grown so much since then.

"You know they'll tease us if they catch us sleeping in the same bed together." He pointed out.

"Let them." She said and snuggled closer to him. "If it means you sleep peacefully, they can tease me as much as they like." She laced her fingers with his and brought it close to her chest.

When did just her presence and her touch bring him such comfort? He took his hand from hers and wrapped it around her to bring her closer to him. He laid there and focused on her warmth, her scent, and the feel of the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. He stayed like that for awhile, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head.

"I love you." He whispered softly.

He waited for a response. But one never came. No reaction at all. He pulled away to see her face. Was she surprised? Happy? Upset? No. She was fast asleep. He chuckled lightly, partly in relief that her silence hadn't been a sign of rejection. He pulled her close again and let himself fall asleep.

* * *

A couple more days passed and Fu arrived in Resembool. He thanked everyone for helping his granddaughter and insisted she would be fine and return to Xing to fully heal. They said their final farewells and waved as Lan Fan and Fu left Resembool.

Winry started discussing her plans to return to Rush Valley and the Elrics began discussing if they would return to Central or travel somewhere else. After what happened back in Central, the Fuhrer had split up Mustang's most trusted allies. He'd moved Hughes and his family to the southwest near the borders where Amestris, Creta, and Aerugo met.

Alison approached Edward in the room they shared while he was packing. They were alone.

"Edward, I have something to tell you." She said quietly, hesitantly.

Edward turned around to see her and caught the uncertain look on her face. His stomach dropped. Had she heard his confession? Was she here to reject his feelings? Or was it something else?

She wordlessly came to sit on her bed and fiddled with her hands.

"Something is bothering you." He stated and sat next to her.

"Yeah…" she replied.

"What is it?"

She bit her bottom lip and sighed. Being completely open and honest was terrifying. But she refused to lie to him. She cared so deeply for this man, and keeping these thoughts inside wasn't fair to him.

"I've been thinking lately." She started. "Asta…Asta is ready to separate from me the first chance she gets. And in doing so…it could offer me passage home."

Edward was silent. He knew this conversation would eventually come. And he thought he'd be prepared to talk about it. But he still felt he wasn't. He wasn't sure he'd ever be prepared to talk about her leaving forever.

"I'm…not so sure…" She paused and tried to think of the words to say. "I've been considering my options." She said.

"Options?"

"Yeah. You know…like maybe…staying." She said carefully with a shrug.

Edward wasn't sure it was possible for his heart to flutter so much. Joy bubbled in his chest and he never thought hearing those words would make him so happy.

"But…"

There was always a but.

"I don't know if I'm thinking clearly." She sighed heavily "It's hard to know if I'm making the right decision when I'm around you all the time. Because when I'm with you, you're all I want. So I think I need to take some time to think. I need to step away from the situation and figure out if I'm truly making the right decision."

"Step away?" He questioned. "You mean…leave?"

"Just for a little while!" She quickly added. She carefully took his hands in her own and held them tightly. "I promise I will come back to you. I just need to figure things out. And it's so hard to do when you're around." A pained look crossed his face and she smiled gently and cupped his face. "Not in a bad way, Ed. When you're around… it's hard to focus on anything else."

"You're being sappy." He forced a smile. The smile faded and he sighed. "Whatever time you need, take it." He leaned in and gently kissed the top of her forehead.

She pressed her forehead against his chest and sighed.

"Thank you." She whispered softly.

She pulled away and looked up into his golden eyes. She swore he'd grown taller since they first met. He smiled but his eyes held pain. She didn't want to hurt him. But she had to know for sure that she was making the right decision. She leaned up and kissed him. Her hands ran up his chest and he wrapped an arm around her waist and his hand came to rest at the base of her head. He kissed her deeply, tasting her thoroughly. He wasn't sure when he'd have the chance to touch her again and he wanted savor it. If only they had enough time and privacy to do more. He briefly wondered if she would be up for another walk to the old club house.

When they finally pulled away, she had tears in her eyes. It was worrying. Maybe she'd already made up her mind.

"I'm sorry." She wiped her eyes. "It's not forever but I'm still really going to miss you."

Why did his chest hurt so much?

"Just…please come back. Whatever your answer is…tell me in person." He said and wiped another tear from her cheek.

She nodded.

"I would never leave without a proper goodbye, Edward." She said and cupped his cheek.

He pulled her against him and held her tightly one last time. She wrapped her arms around him and let herself enjoy the feel of his body against her. She pulled away and gave him a sad smile, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Wait for me." She leaned up and gently kissed his lips before pulling away. She quietly grabbed her bag and left.

Edward didn't move for a few moments. When he did, he moved to look out the window, to watch the woman he loved walking down the road, away from him.

The Elrics boarded the train heading southwest. Winry was accompanying them to visit the Hughes family before returning to Rush Valley. The brothers were also to follow her there as well. Winry had been told of new automail material that was said to be lighter but more durable.

"Maybe you won't break it so easy." Winry teased.

Of course, they asked Edward where Alison had gone. And he had told them that she had a few leads to follow and some things to work out with Asta. Alphonse wanted to question why they couldn't accompany her, but he decided his brother would open up to him when he was ready.

Ed stared out the window as the train ran through the rural scenery. Winry had gone to the dining car for a drink, and Alphonse was reading a book.

"She loves you, you know." Alphonse spoke suddenly.

"Huh?" Ed hadn't been paying attention.

"Alison. She loves you." He repeated. "You love her, too. Don't you?" It was more of a statement rather than a question.

Ed sighed and leaned his head against the cool glass.

"Yeah." He replied.

Why did she always have to run off like that? After their first kiss, practically the very next day she was going on about needing to leave for Xerxes. And this time, they'd had sex for the first time, and she said she needed to step back and think about things. Even if those events had nothing to do with her deciding to travel solo, she had shit timing.

He understood why she needed time. He supposed he would want the space to think clearly if he was in a similar situation. But that didn't make things any easier.

He cringed, knowing Maes and Gracia would question where Ali was. And he'd either have to tell them the truth or come up with a convincing lie that Hughes would see right through.

He was anxious. How much time would she need? And when she returned, what would her answer be? He felt so selfish hoping she would choose to leave her family and former way of life behind in exchange for one here. What kind of equivalent exchange would he need to give to keep her in his life? What else did he have to give? And after everything he'd done, he wondered if he even deserved that kind of happiness.

He sighed again. Even if it only took her two days to make a decision, he knew it would feel like an eternity.


	12. Chapter 12

_**TW: Mentions of rape and violence.** _

" _After the prophet Cornello was revealed as a fraud, it created a power vacuum within the city." Mustang told the blonde. "There was an uprising and the military was sent to bring it under control. As you can guess, it did quiet the opposite."_

_Ed felt the familiar pang of guilt hit his chest. He and Al had been the ones to reveal the false prophet._

" _There's been an interesting development recently. It's caused Bradley to recall the troops from Liore. His official reasoning was that peace had been restored. Unofficially, there are rumors of new protection over the city. Rumors have it that someone with powerful abilities in alchemy had been blocking soldiers from civilians. Erecting barriers in the blink of an eye. Some even have given the protector a name. They say Liore is now under the protection of the Moon Goddess." Mustang finally looked up from his desk and stared at Edward with a meaningful look._

" _So you're sending me to check it out." Ed stated._

" _You made a few friends there, right? Maybe you should take some time to see how they're fairing. And if you happen to discover a new prophet, you can report back." Mustang said simply._

* * *

Edward looked out the window of the train and replayed the conversation with Mustang over and over again in his head. It had to be her. It had to be Alison. He knew he told her he'd give her as much time as she needed. And part of him wanted to honor that agreement. But the other part of him was dying to see her again. He was anxious. What would she say? Would she say she'd made up her mind? She needed more time? How much more time? And if she had made a decision…what was it?

"Brother…" Al's voice broke him from his worries. "Look."

Ed looked towards the opposite side of the train to see the city of Liore, half of it in shambles. The blonde paled. Had they caused all of this destruction?

The brothers wandered down the streets of the desert town. It was busy with people rebuilding.

"Edward! Alphonse!" The brothers heard a familiar voice call them excitedly.

"Rose!" Al called happily.

"It's so good to see you!" She rushed over with a smile. A thought seemed to cross her mind. "You aren't here because the military sent you, are you?"

"No. We're here on personal business." Ed affirmed her.

"Oh?"

"We lost contact with a friend of ours a couple of months ago. We think she may be here." Alphonse explained.

"The woman known as the Moon Goddess," Edward started. "Can you bring us to her?"

"Well…" Rose hesitated. "I usually spend most of my time helping feed those rebuilding the town. I'm never out in the fights. So I've never really met her. There is a woman who occasionally helps me with the cooking. I don't know if she's the same woman. We've actually had a few drifters come through recently. They agree to help in exchange for food and shelter."

"Ed, how are we going to find her?" Al asked his brother.

"I can introduce you to some people who may know where she is. They may be reluctant to tell you. You are a well known State Alchemist after all. But there are conflicting reports of what she looks like. Some have said she had brown hair and eyes. Other have said her eyes are silver like the moon."

"So Asta is resurfacing more." Ed mused aloud. "Rose, we would be grateful if you introduced us."

In the distance, a few blocks away, they heard a ruckus and watched as a tall building reconstructed before their eyes, surrounded by the blue energy of a transmutation.

Ed's breath caught in his chest and he found himself running towards it.

He approached the crowd of citizens cleaning rubble and studying building plans.

Her laughter pierced through the surrounding noise like an arrow and it landed directly in his chest.

"Ali!" He called to her. Her reaction was what sucked the breath right out of his lungs. She didn't look worried, or annoyed, or upset to see him. When her eyes fell on him, they lit up and she smiled broadly before running towards him. In the next few moments she had her arms around his neck and her lips pressed against his.

"I've miss you so much!" She pulled away to say before kissing him again. "What are you doing here? Is Al with you?"

"He's probably not far behind." He replied, still holding her tightly. "And we can talk about why I'm here a little later. Why are you in Liore?"

"I came here before awhile back and things were kind of tense with military presence. I heard the city was having some issues, and I had made a few friends before so I came to check on them." She explained. "The military left not long after I got here so I decided to stick around and help rebuild."

"I heard the Fuhrer claimed peace had been restored in Liore and no longer needed military intervention." Ed's tone held a hidden meaning.

"We can talk about that later." She smiled "Let me finish up here and I'll show you where Al and you can stay."

Alphonse quickly caught up to his brother. He exchanged his excited greetings with Alison. Rose formally met their friend; the two only having met in passing. When Alison was done helping restore that area of the city, the townspeople insisted she call it a day. She'd been working since sunrise for days and they'd made incredible progress with her help.

"So, why are you here?" She asked the brothers when they were alone in the small room she stayed in.

"Mustang suggested we take some personal time and check in on some friends in Liore. He also mentioned some rumors about Liore coming under new protection." Ed gave her a meaningful look.

"You can make some pretty cool special effects with the right lighting and some well used alchemy." She shrugged. "Even make it look other worldly."

"How much of it involved Asta?" Al asked.

"Almost all of it. Sometimes I leave her in control, sometimes I'm in control. Hell, we've recently figured out how to work together outside of a dreams. It's been incredible being able to work so fluidly like that." She explained.

"So what exactly did this 'Moon Goddess' do to practically force Bradley to pull troops out?" Ed asked.

"Nothing violent. Just a few optical illusions coupled with some impressive alchemy and barriers and now they think something akin to a deity protects the city. Bradley probably realizes who it really is though. And as far as that name goes, you can thank Asta for that. She thinks she's funny. But I assure you, the people of Liore didn't trade one false prophet for another. They all know it's alchemy and just a name." Alison smirked before her expression changed. "Well…I got a little violent maybe once or twice. But it had nothing to do with the Moon Goddess." She confessed with a nervous grin.

"What happened?" Alphonse asked carefully. The look in her eyes told them it was an unpleasant story.

"You come across some soldiers with something to prove, kicking the shit out of an old man or some kid. A nice stone fist to the gut stops that pretty fast. But one guy…" Her expression darkened and she looked at the window. "I was helping with some clean up when I heard a strange noise. I went to check it out and there was a soldier…forcing himself on a girl. She couldn't have been older than maybe fourteen. I grabbed a pipe from off the floor… I remember the noise he made when I struck him across the back." She looked down and fiddled with her hands, a frown deeply etched into her face.

"I remember him getting up and he looked at me like he was going to kill me. I don't remember what happened next. Just that he was lying on the ground, face bloody and beaten, the pipe dripping with blood… " She was silent for a long time. The brothers stayed silent, knowing more was coming. "I…I honestly had no idea if I killed him or not." Her voice cracked. "I just took the girl to a doctor and left him there. It was a few days later I found out he was still alive. He wouldn't be eating solid foods for awhile, but his wounds weren't life threatening. They didn't even try to investigate. Word is it wasn't the first time he'd raped a woman. They just figured he'd finally picked the wrong woman. And if they did an investigation, it could come out that a soldier was raping women in the city they were supposed to be keeping peace in. And well, that wouldn't look to great on the military."

"If you don't remember parts of it, could it have been Asta?" Ed asked.

She shook her head.

"I know when Asta takes over. It wasn't her." She refused to look them in the eyes. She wasn't aware she was capable of such violence. "I don't….exactly feel bad about it though." She admitted. "I broke his jaw. But it will heal. What he did to that girl…trauma like that doesn't just go away overnight."

Alison had a distant look in her eye. She was silent, like she was replaying the events. A sudden knock made her jump and she rubbed her temple after coming back from her thoughts.

"Come in!" She yelled to the door. It was one of the townspeople. He apologized profusely, but said they needed her help. Sensing how tired she was, and that his brother had many things he wanted to say to her, Alphonse volunteered his services in her place.

"I'm sorry." Edward said when they were alone. "I never wanted you to experience that kind of violence. The bloodshed…the atrocities people are capable of committing…"

She chuckled lightly.

"If I wanted to avoid violence I wouldn't have come to Liore. I came here because I felt my help was needed. Besides, it's not like my world doesn't have its own evils." She drawled.

At the mention of her own world, he wanted to ask her if she'd made a decision. But he held his tongue. He had to trust she would tell him when she was ready.

Another frantic knock came at the door. Alison sighed and walked to the door.

"Miss Alison! There are rumors that a State Alchemist is in the city!" An older man told her excitedly. Edward could see the man from the door. The old man was Ishvallan.

"It's okay. The Fullmetal Alchemist is a friend of mine. I assure you he isn't here on military business. He won't hurt anyone." She reassured him.

"It's not the Fullmetal Alchemist, miss!"

"What?"

"Who is it?" Edward asked approaching the man.

"I don't know his title." The man was clearly terrified. "I just remember seeing him in Ishval."

"Stay inside. I'll check it out." She passed by him.

"Hold on! I'm coming with you!" Ed followed close behind.

They walked down the streets of Liore. It wasn't hard to find the mystery soldier. He was causing quite a crowd to form. A man in an all white suit and a white hat could be seen walking down the street. He had long black hair neatly pulled back. A group of large soldiers in military uniforms surrounded him.

"Wait a minute…" Ed muttered. "That's the Crimson Alchemist. He was thrown in prison years ago. He was charged as a war criminal for things he did in Ishval."

"Then what the hell is he doing here?" Alison growled and stalked towards the man and his bodyguards.

Edward tried to stop the woman but before he could she was calling after the dangerous man.

"Hey, you!" She yelled. "The military had orders to clear out!"

The man's eyes fell on the young woman and he smirked.

"You mistake me, miss." He smiled politely. "While I was at one time enlisted, I'm currently just a civilian like yourself."

"Oh, really? Then what's with the goons behind you?" She snapped. The large men snarled at her but she wasn't shaken.

"I am merely a civilian contracted by the Fuhrer to track down a wanted criminal. My name is Solf Kimblee, formerly known as the Crimson Alchemist. These men have been assigned to me for my protection." His eyes fell on Edward. "Ah, you're the Fullmetal Alchemist, right? One of Mustang's dogs."

Edward bared his teeth at the remark.

"Hero of the People. Youngest State Alchemist in history. A real prodigy. What's someone like you doing in a dump like this?" Kimblee grinned.

"Who are you looking for?" Alison interrupted. Kimblee looked vaguely annoyed before smiling.

"A dangerous killer. Goes by Scar. Ishvallan man. Large scar on his face-"

"I know what he looks like, and I assure you he isn't here." She cut him off.

"And why should I take your word for it?"

"He tried to kill my friends. Multiple times. I promise if he had shown his face here I would have taken care of him myself." She growled.

Kimblee chuckled and sauntered towards her.

"As much as I wish I could take your word on the matter, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't do my own investigating." He leaned down close to her and lowered his voice. "I'm not after you or anyone else in this shit hole. My only job is to find the Ishvallan and bring him in, dead or alive. So unless you want a few dozen deaths on your hands, stay out of my way. Got it, princess?" He sneered at her reaction. Yes, he knew exactly who she was. Of course Bradley told him. He didn't give two shits about what Bradley, or Wrath or whatever the hell he went by, and whoever else was planning. He was tracking an Ishvallan and he was itching to finish the job he'd started years ago.

Kimblee motioned to his men and they passed by the young woman without a word. She spun around and watched him walk away.

"What did he say to you?" Edward immediately came to her side.

"He knows who I am." She growled.

"Do you think he's working with the homunculi?"

"I don't know. He only sounded interested in Scar." She murmured as the two watched the Crimson Alchemist and his guards walk away.

The murmuring of anxious people around them brought her from her thoughts.

"Don't worry, everyone." She proclaimed loudly. "He is not here because of Liore. He is nothing more than a bounty hunter. I know the criminal he's looking for isn't here, so once he sees that, he'll be gone." The crowd still seemed anxious but a little more at ease by her words.

Ed wondered just what had she done to the other soldiers in Liore to make them look to her like that.

The crowd seemed satisfied and they all went back about their business. The sun was close to setting and those rebuilding were cleaning up for the day.

Alison plopped down on a stoop and rubbed her temples.

"I meant to leave here like three weeks ago. But this place…it's just been one disaster after another." She murmured. "The fact that I have a nickname that's reached Central is bad enough." She looked up at Edward. For the first time he could see how tired she looked. "Ever get yourself stuck in a situation that could've been avoided if you'd just been an asshole?" She asked. He chuckled lightly and extended a hand.

"You look exhausted. Why don't we get something to eat?" He suggested.

Ali smiled and accepted his outstretched hand.

Alphonse had run into Rose again on his way back and she joined them at the small Café, one of the few places still operating in the city.

* * *

_The lights suddenly cut out and the city center was shrouded in darkness. Ominously, the clouds seemed to part in the sky, allowing the full moon to brighten the area. The soldiers murmured amongst themselves._

_A strike of lightning seemed to shoot across the sky, from the top of one building to the next._

_The ground began to quake beneath them and a structure began to arise from the ground._

" _You dare harm these souls." A woman's voice echoed and boomed around them. They couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. It seemed to be coming from all around them._

_The murmuring became louder and more anxious. A few shouts were let out when the lighting hit again, this time illuminating a figure standing atop of the rising structure. As soon at the lightning struck, it was gone, casting darkness over the figure._

" _These people are under my protection, hence forth!" The voice bellowed._

_The ground shook again and the figure above had disappeared. The structure began to mold and morph and take on the appearance of a woman._

" _Leave this city!" The material that made up the figure's lips cracked together and small bits crumbled from the stone as the mouth moved._

_The figure made from the stone looked alive. Its eyes began to glow a bright white light._

" _I am the Moon Goddess and I demand these people be left in peace!" The figure raised a hand and brought a fist crashing to the ground. The stone fist cracked at the impact, and the surround buildings began to crumble. The building were already in ruins and collapsed easily._

_The soldiers immediately ran away from the figure and out of the city center._

_Walls and barricades erected instantly along each street and alley way, only leaving one route for the soldier. The route led them out of the city._

* * *

"And in just a few days the soldiers were gone." Ali told her friends.

"How did you do all of that?" Al asked in amazement.

"Asta was able to guide me through most of it. It felt like having fifteen different tabs open on a browser all at once but I managed to keep everything separated." She chuckled.

"Tabs on a browser?" Rose questioned.

"Nevermind." Alison smiled nervously. She had to be careful with what she said. "Just a saying from back home, I guess."

"Where are you from, anyways?" Rose asked with a smile. "I've lived here my entire life so I haven't had much contact with other areas of the country, but your dialect is very unique."

"So have you been in Liore all this time?" Alphonse suddenly asked.

"I made a couple of stops along the way, but pretty much." Alison was grateful for the change in conversation. "So, Rose, how do you know Ed and Al?" Alison asked.

"They saved my life!" Rose told her.

"I wouldn't go that far." Ed mumbled bashfully.

"They did! They exposed a man we all saw as a prophet of god as a fake. If it weren't for them, I would still be blindly following Father Cornello."

"But it caused so much chaos in the end." Al pointed out, his voice carrying his guilt.

"The sudden removal from power may have caused an upset in the political climate of the city, causing a few skirmishes." Alison spoke. "But ultimately it was the military's intervention later that lit the real fire."

"Things were starting to actually calm down until they came." Rose agreed.

Edward's face said he was thinking about what he had just been told. If things were getting under control, why bother raising tension further by sending in soldiers? Why expend the resources?

"Speaking of military," Rose started. "I heard a lot of commotion earlier about some soldiers in town."

"We looked in to that." Alison tried to put her mind at ease. "Right now, the military is putting a lot of effort into tracking down a man who has killed multiple State Alchemists. The man with the soldiers has been charged with tracking him down."

"Who's here?" Alphonse asked his brother. He had been absent though all of that.

"The guy known as the Crimson Alchemist." Ed replied.

"Isn't that guy a war criminal from Ishval?" Al gasped.

"Yeah. That's another thing that bothers me." Ed mused. "Why send a creep like him?"

Alison nodded in agreement. She took a sip of her drink and looked up behind the brothers. She nearly choked on her drink and began coughing.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked worriedly.

"Shit." She rasped out. "I forgot to tell you!"

"Miss Alison, so good to see you again." A voice said from behind the brothers.

Alison yelled an internal 'FUCK', her face possibly mimicking her thoughts before regaining composure.

"H-hey! Nice to see you, too!" She prepared herself as the boys turned around to see the man that was talking to her. "Ed…Al…you know…um…your dad."

"Edward?" The man spoke his eldest son's name before turning to the armor. "And Alphonse, is that you? What are you doing in the armor from my collection?"

In the next moment the older man was laid on the ground with a bloody nose.

"What do you think you're doing here, old man?!" Edward screamed.

Alison slapped her palm over her forehead and groaned. God. Dammit.

"So, yeah. Your dad is here." She murmured to Alphonse as his brother hurled insults at Hohenheim.

Alphonse picked his brother up like one would pick up an ankle biting Chihuahua.

"Dad…what are you doing here?" Alphonse asked softly, having a much different reaction to seeing his father for the first time in over a decade. The older man picked himself up and brushed off his clothes, barely phased by the physical and verbal assault of his eldest son.

Alison moved from her chair to stand next to Edward. If only to stop him before he made another attack.

"I was passing through and decided to help the people rebuild." He smiled at Alphonse softly. "It seems you've both grown so much. Especially you, Alphonse."

Al tensed at the comment and looked away.

"You didn't tell him in Youswell, did you?" Edward grumbled. Though it was more of a statement.

"Not really my place to tell him those things." She replied.

Hohenheim arrived about a week ago. The two had initially greeted one another and shared a more pleasant conversation that they had in Youswell. Then she only saw him once or twice in passing. They had both been hard at work on separate areas of the city.

Edward shoved his hands in his pockets with a huff and turned around to leave.

"I'm out of here. I have no interest in talking to him." Edward huffed as he walked back towards the building Alison was staying at.

"Brother!" Alphonse called after him. He left out an exasperated sigh and shook his head.

"Your brother is right to be angry with me, Alphonse." Hoheheim spoke with a sad smile.

"He'll cool down." Al assured his father.

"Do you have time to talk for a bit? I would love to hear how things have been going for the two of you." Hohenheim asked. Al nodded and looked to Alison.

"I'll keep your brother from doing anything stupid." She told him and watched the suit of armor walk away with his father.

Alison sighed and glanced at Rose, who had been there for the whole ordeal.

"Heh. Family reunions, right?" She said with a grin.

"Um…" Was her only response.

"I'm gonna...go check on Ed." Alison stammered and thumbed in the direction the blonde had stomped off.

"S-sure!" Rose smiled. She was trying to not show how uncomfortable that whole ordeal had made her. "It was wonderful meeting you!" She waved Alison off.

She walked to her room to find Edward leaning against the door, pouting. He didn't have a key, and surprisingly he had the decency to not use alchemy to break in. Ali sighed and unlocked the door for him.

"Why didn't you say something earlier? About him being here." Ed grumbled.

"I forgot. I've been a little busy, okay? Besides, I wasn't expecting you to show up in Liore." She replied.

Edward closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn't mean to take his annoyance and frustrations out on her. Between seeing her again, wondering when she would drop the bombshell that was her decision, and now his father being here, he was feeling a little emotionally overwhelmed. Edward was now aware of the reasons his father left. Alison had told him what his father had said in Youswell. But the lousy bastard couldn't have called? Written a letter? Visited? And it was so hard to let go of so much resentment for someone.

A gentle hand came to rest of his shoulder. He looked to see Alison giving him a sympathetic look. He sighed and placed his hand over hers and gently smiled at her.

"I've missed you." He told her and pulled her against him. He used to feel so silly saying such things out loud, expressing emotional vulnerability. But not with her. Not anymore. The words were so easy to say.

"I've missed you, too." She replied softly against his chest and wrapped her arms around his back.

Edward pulled away enough so he could leaned down and kiss her. His tongue slipped past her lips and he pressed himself against her. It had been nearly two months since he'd last held her in his arms like this. He needed her touch, her taste, her everything. He needed, even if for just a little while, to pretend her answer would be that she would stay with him. He needed to forget that he'd worried about this for so long. He wanted to ignore that his father was here and that he'd eventually have to deal with that. For the meantime, he only wanted thoughts of her to consume his mind. The way she moved against him told him that she wanted him too. Whether she was trying to distract herself as well, or just missed his touch, he didn't know. But he found it didn't matter.

His hands found her ass and he hoisted her up. She let out a small sound of surprise as she wrapped her legs around him and held tighter. He moved them both to the bed and dropped her on the mattress. She barely had time to correct herself before he was crawling between he legs and hovering over her.

The look of pure arousal and desire that darkened his golden eyes was intoxicating in of itself. She bit her lip to prevent a small whimper of desire from escaping.

"I better be the only one you look at like that." She purred. Her possessiveness even surprised her a little. She'd never been the possessive type. But the thought of him ever looking at anyone else with that same level of arousal brought out a feeling she didn't want to feed in to.

Edward didn't at all seem bothered by her possessive words. In fact, they seemed to fuel his desire.

"As long as I'm the only one who gets to see how you look," He leaned down and licked and nipped at her throat. "When your writhing in pleasure, craving more and begging for release." His teeth tugged at her ear.

She let out a sharp gasp. Who would have taken Ed for someone who enjoyed talking dirty and being talked dirty to?

"The only one." She purred as his hand crept up her shirt. "Fuck, Ed." She gasped. "Where'd you learn to talk like that?" She nearly moan as his hand found its prize and he left little marks along her neck and collarbone. In that moment, she didn't care that people would see the marks.

Ed just smirked against her skin. He wouldn't dare tell her he'd been secretly reading some cheesy erotic romance novels. Purely research. That's all it had been. He was, after all, out of his depth when it came to sex and fuck asking anyone about it. He didn't need Havoc or Mustang or anyone knowing that much about his personal life. So he read a few novels and picked up a few things.

The lovers lied there in a tangled mess of limbs and sheets. Edward was quietly very happy to find that she was just as eager and wanting of him as she had been the first time. It brought hope that she would choose to stay.

He winced inwardly. He'd hoped those thoughts would stay away a bit longer.

"Do you think Alphonse will be back soon?" Her breath tickled his bare chest when she spoke.

"Knowing him, he'll be out with Hohenheim awhile longer." Ed replied.

"Don't you think you should talk to him? Your father, I mean?" She asked carefully.

"No." Was his simple response as he pulled her closer and began to nibble and kiss at the areas he'd marked earlier. "I'd rather stay here, like this."

"You can't avoid him forever, ya know." Alison tried to ignore what he was doing.

"Sure I can." He retorted as his hand ran along her thigh.

Alison bit her lip and raked her nail lightly up his back as she moved against him. She could feel his reawakening excitement and dammit, she felt she didn't want to argue about his preference anymore.

* * *

While Ali bathed, thoughts crept back into Ed's mind. Thoughts he'd been trying to ignore. She still hadn't told him her answer; if she would stay in this world or return to her own. It worried him. If she'd chosen to stay, why would she delay telling him? Maybe she hadn't decided yet. Or maybe she decided to return to her home and didn't want to tell him. The whole thing had his stomach in knots. Should he ask her? No. He told her he'd give her whatever time she needed, and he wasn't going to rush her.

Ali stepped out of the bathroom. She was drying her hair with a towel when she noticed the intense look on the blonde's face.

"You're going to cause premature wrinkles if you keep making that face." She teased lightly. She had an inkling as to what he was in thought about. She needed to tell him her decision. She was hesitant to. Mostly because it felt like the choice she'd made had been the selfish one. She knew he would understand either way. It still didn't make it easier to say.

Edward gave her a grin in return, thinly masking the worries in his expression.

"Is Al not back yet?" She asked. "It's getting late."

"He probably found a stray cat or something." Ed shrugged and laid out on the bed.

The reasoning seemed plausible enough. Something still didn't feel right, however. Alison shook the feeling off. Alphonse could take care of himself.


	13. Chapter 13

The sun had set long ago and it was approaching midnight and Alphonse still hadn't returned. Alison stood by the window and scanned the empty streets for the armored boy.

"It's not like him to stay out so late." She murmured. "Without at least giving some kind of heads up."

"He's a seven foot suit of armor. How much trouble can he get in?" Ed chuckled. He had faith in his brother's abilities to take care of himself.

"Except for that time in Dublith." She pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was-"

"And Kimblee and his goons are still out there."

Ed fell silent.

"We're going to look for him." She stated. "Get your coat. It gets cold here at night."

"Okay, it's roughly midnight now, so let's meet back here in two hours." Alison said.

"Wait, meet back? You're wanting to split up?" Ed didn't like that idea.

"Liore is a big place. We're more likely to find him faster if we split up." She explained.

"I get that, but if Kimblee is involved-"

"Don't worry about me. I never get into trouble." She winked and pat his cheek. He grabbed her hand and held it firmly, making sure she was looking at him.

"I'm serious, Alison. Be careful."

He really was concerned if he was using her full first name.

"I will." She leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Now I'll see you back here in a couple of hours."

Her hand slipped from his as she ran off in the opposite direction he was to go. He stared after her, unable to shake the bad feeling weighing on him.

Alison searched up and down the streets of western Liore, asking anyone still out if they'd seen a seven foot tall suit of armor go by. Some said they had, and she searched in the direction they told her they'd seen him go.

"I saw him talking to some men earlier. They were about as big as he was. I don't know what about, but they argued about something." A middle aged man said. The man was sitting on a barrel and drinking with a few other companions.

"Whatever they argued about," Another man piped up. "They must have resolved their issues because he followed them off somewhere that way." He pointed in another direction. "That's the only time we saw them."

"Thank you, so much!" She walked away toward where they'd directed her. She looked at the ground carefully for large foot prints. She found a set that looked like Al's and two other large sets. Thankfully the streets were still covered in dirt and sand, making the tracks easier to see. The altercation happening during a time of day with low traffic helped as well.

She followed the tracks through the streets and alleyways, noticing they seemed to purposely go in complicated directions. Where she ended up would have taken half the time to get there had they only made two turns. They were probably trying to make it hard for them to be tracked. Well they shouldn't have had men with noticeable large shoes walking with a suit of armor with large boots on a night with a full moon. It was far too easy to track.

She froze before taking a step towards the abandoned building the tracks ended at. What if that was the point? What if it was a trap?

She examined the outside of the building. It had been damaged in the riots. The rebuilding efforts hadn't made it this far into Liore yet. It didn't appear as though there was any life inside the building. Maybe there was another entrance.

She snuck around the building and found what looked like a basement window. She peaked through the dusty window but couldn't see any signs of movement. She was able to shimmy it open a little and listened carefully. Still, nothing.

She stopped and thought about her options. She could go in alone. Or she could find Edward and bring him to the house. But if what if they moved? Then they'd be back at square one with finding Alphonse. For all she knew, they'd already abandoned the house. She saw no trail that suggested that, however. She shook her head and strengthened her resolve. She couldn't waste any time.

She pulled the window up further and poked her head in to decide the best course of entry. She would have to go in feet first or risk landing on her head.

She laid on her stomach and slid through the window. She landed quietly on her feet and waited for any sign that she'd been discovered.

She tried to control her breathing. Her heart was pounding and her adrenaline pumping. There was no telling what awaited her in this house.

She heard muffled voices coming from above her. One she recognized to be Alphonse. Relief washed over her, at least knowing he was there.

She heard a strange hiss from behind her and she felt her blood turn cold. She turned around just in time to duck out of the way as an arm made a wide swing at her. She didn't, however, expect her legs to be knocked out beneath her. She landed on her back, knocking the air from her lungs. She gasped for air and her vision focused enough for her to see something coming down towards her. She rolled out of the way as the object crashed down on the floor. She stared at the cracked concrete for a moment before scrambling to her feet.

The assailant stepped into the light and she nearly lost her footing stepping backwards. It was some sort of humanoid lizard creature. A chimera? It's skin was scaly, its snout elongated like some kind of reptile, teeth sharp like daggers, and a tail swinging back and forth. It had to be one of Kimblee's men. It was wearing the tattered remains of an Amestrian military uniform.

The creature lunged at her again and she swiped her hand up, creating a blunt object to come from the concrete floor and hit him in the jaw. He fell backwards and let out a howl of pain.

Dammit. If they didn't know she was there before, they did now. She heard a commotion coming from upstairs. The door at the top of the stairs burst open. The chimera took this moment of distraction to swipe his tail at her again. It hit her in the gut and knocked her against the wall. Her head bounced off the brick wall and her vision spun. She fell forward onto her knees. She saw others surrounding her. She looked up to have some faceless goon punch her across the face. She fell to the floor like a ragdoll.

The men parted ways as Kimblee walked in.

"Wonderful." He grinned. "Now let's see if she creates as powerful of a stone as Bradley says. Tie her up and take her upstairs with the armored kid."

* * *

Part of Edward wanted to tell her he loved her. She hadn't heard him the first time. But if she was planning to go home, what was the point? It would just hurt more. Why expend the emotional energy if she was just going to disappear at the end of it? And speaking of disappearing, he needed to talk to her about splitting off from them every time something meaningful happened between them. Again, what would be the point in tellung her he loved her if she just ran off again for a month or more.

Edward shook the thoughts away walked down the city streets, looking for his armored brother. He wasn't too worried about him. The guy could look after himself. The only reason Greed's gang was able to take him hostage was because Marta took control of his body from inside the armor. Then again, what if Kimblee's body guards were also chimeras?

Edward's eye caught the back of his father.

"Hey, Hohenheim!" Ed yelled to the man. The man stopped and turned to his son.

"You can call me dad, you know." He pointed out.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Ed spat.

Hohenheim sighed. He wasn't going to start a fight with the young man.

"Where's Alphonse?" Ed asked harshly.

"Alphonse? We parted ways awhile ago. He didn't make it back?" Hohenheim questioned, worry evident in his eyes.

"Dammit, Al." Ed cursed.

"I'll take you to where I last saw him." His father insisted.

"I don't need your help!" Edward snapped.

"You're getting it, whether you like it or not. You may hate me but you are both still my sons." Hohenheim countered and turned to walk the opposite way Edward had come. "Hurry up." He ordered the younger blonde.

Edward growled but followed the older man nonetheless.

* * *

"This is where I last saw him." Hohenheim told his son.

"You guys also looking for the armored guy?" An old man sitting with a few others piped up.

"Yeah. Have you seen him?" Ed asked.

"Yeah, a couple hours ago. Some pretty young thing came through about an hour ago looking for him. Told her he went off that way." The old man said and pointed in the direction he'd sent Alison.

"Thanks old man!" Ed replied happily.

"Who're you calling old, kid?" The old man grunted. "Hope you find that girl. Even with the military gone, these streets can still he dangerous at night." He warned before turning his attention back to his companions.

* * *

When Alison opened her eyes, she was bound and laying on her side on a wooden floor. Her vision focused and she noticed something written on the floor around her. She lifted herself up enough to see what it was. She felt the cold grip of panic take her when she realized she was in the middle of a transmutation circle.

"Alison…you're awake." She heard Al's voice.

"Alphonse? What's going on?" She tried to turn herself around. She squirmed and threw her weight until she was able to move to her other side. She was able to face him and see he was chained up and sitting against a wall. His arms were kept apart to keep him from using alchemy.

"I'm so sorry." His voice seemed to crack. "Kimblee said he'd blow the entire city to rubble if I didn't come with him. I didn't know he would bring you into this."

"It's going to be okay, Al." She promised him.

"Probably not." She heard. She looked towards the door to see Kimblee standing there. "Now, before you think about using that fancy alchemy of yours, keep in mind I can blow that blood seal of his to dust."

"I thought you were just after Scar." She growled.

"I was. Then I got to thinking, why should I let those freaks in Central have all that power to themselves?" He shrugged casually.

"They're going to kill you for this." She warned.

"Maybe. But if I can harness that power inside of you, they won't be able to touch me."

"Fine. You have me. Let Alphonse go." She tried to bargain.

"Not a chance. I can't risk him trying to stop me."

Alison was quiet for a moment.

"You don't plan on letting him go at all. Do you?" She was given a smirk in response.

"Alison…I'm so sorry." Al apologized again. If he could, he would be crying.

"Alphonse, stop." She said sternly and strained to look at him. "It's going to be okay. Don't worry." She tried to assure him. It didn't help that he could clearly see the tears and the panic in her eyes.

"Adorable." Kimblee scoffed. "Say your goodbyes or whatever." He turned and called for someone outside of the room.

"Alphonse, I have a plan." She whispered. "I don't know if it will work but it's all I have. If it doesn't work…I'm sorry."

A couple of men in plain clothes walked in. They were older men.

"These alchemists will be seeing to your transformation." Kimblee smirked.

Alison's heart was pounding out of her chest as the men approached her. She gave Alphonse one last look before they laid their hands on the circle. The pain was immediate. The light that surrounded her was nearly blinding. It felt like her blood was on fire and every muscle in her body had seized.

She let put a blood curdling scream as it felt as if the markings on her back were being sliced into her skin again. The light grew brighter as sparks danced around her. She tried to push the pain away and focused as much as she could. She felt Asta's presence in her mind, guiding her.

The blue light of the transmutation suddenly turned red. She heard screaming, but this time it wasn't her. It was the scientists participating in the transmutation. She couldn't see what was happening, but if things had gone as planned, their entire physical being was being deconstructed.

She heard Al crying out to her before another loud noise and she heard the armor clang to the floor. She panicked; what happened to Alphonse? But Asta refused to let her lose her focus or they would die.

The light grew unbearably bright as she felt spindly arms grabbing her. She felt her body deconstructing as she was pulled in to the Gate.

* * *

Edward had found tracks. And by the looks of it, so had Ali. He followed the tracks as they took an odd route. Much to Ed's dismay, his father was still with him.

Edward felt a chill run down his spine as he heard a scream coming not too far away. Without a second thought, he ran in the direction of the scream.

* * *

She opened her eyes to find her pain was gone, and her body no longer bound. She picked herself off the floor and turned to see the Gate. Had her plan worked? Or was she just about to be changed into a stone?

"I wasn't quite sure we would pull that one off." Asta's voice came from beside her. Alison looked over to find the woman dressed in royal Xingese robes.

"It worked." Alison murmured. "We altered the transmutation!"

Asta turned and smiled at her.

"And we are now separate. But the power of the stone is still bound to you." Asta said. "In exchange for those men, I was able to just remove myself." Asta sighed happily and looked towards the gate. "However, it did expend some of your energy as the Philosopher's stone."

"So it still used other human souls in the transmutation?" Alison asked. Asta nodded.

"Unfortunately we couldn't redirect that much energy. Coincidentally, that energy has to be used somehow." Asta told her.

"What do you mean?"

"You will leave this place unharmed. So don't worry about that. But the energy has allowed an opportunity for the Gate to open"

"No way…" Alison couldn't believe it.

"However," Asta frowned. "Do you remember after Edward was able to see his brother's flesh body before the fight with Father?" Alison nodded.

"I remember Ed told me, Al's body had said something about how it couldn't leave the gate without his soul attached."

"Kimblee destroyed his seal when things turned." Asta told her.

Alison's eyes widened.

"He killed Alphonse?!" She cried out.

"He released his soul from the binds of the armor." Asta corrected. "His soul is now in his original body, within the gate."

"So we could use the energy to bring Al back from the Gate?" She asked excitedly.

"Yes. Or…"

"Or what?" What other possibly option could there be?

"You could use the energy to pass through the gate yourself and return home." Asta met her gaze.

Alison felt her heart stop. She'd found her way home. All she had to do was say the word, and she'd be back in her world. With her family, her friends, her culture. She could finally hug her parents again. She could go back to some semblance of normality. All she had to do was choose.

"Where is Alphonse?" Without hesitation.

"So you're going to give up your only chance of going home? To bring back someone who should have died years ago?" A disembodied voice echoed. The two women looked in front of the Gate to see the translucent figure that seemed to guard it.

"Absolutely." She replied with determination.

"If you decide to save him, you won't have another chance of returning home." The body grinned. "Their mistakes are not yours to fix."

"I don't care!" She yelled. "Let him leave with me, please!" She pleaded.

The figure shrugged.

"Your call."

The large doors opened behind him and in the center sat a frail young man. He was mostly skin and bones with nails grown out too far and his hair long and unkempt. He seemed confused and looked over at the two women.

"Alison?" His voice cracked. "What's going on? Why are we here? Why am I back in my body?" He sounded panicked.

Alison ran over to the frail boy and kneeled down next to him. Her hands cupped his face. She ran her fingers through his hair.

"Alphonse?" Her voice trembled. She'd never seen his human form, but he looked strikingly similar to his brother. Those golden eyes and hair were unmistakable.

"What's going on? Where is brother?"

Alison turned to the translucent figure.

"I've made my decision. Please, let us leave." She said. She looked at Asta one last time. Asta smiled as her body began to seem to disintegrate.

Alison held tightly to the blonde boy as they both seemed to do the same, their bodies deconstructing, hopefully to reconstruct out of the gate's realm.

Alison opened her eyes. She was on a cold hard floor. As her vision focused she saw the frail young man lying on the floor next to her. She sat up with a start and checked the blonde for signs of life. He was breathing and his heart was beating. She finally noticed that he was nude. She shrugged her jacket off and covered him with it.

Alphonse felt so weak and cold. Then it hit him. He could _feel_ the cold hardness beneath him. He opened his eyes to see Alison covering him.

"What happened?" He croaked out.

"Stay here. I need to get help." She ordered before running out of the room.

Alphonse glanced around. He remembered everything before the transmutation. He remembered Alison screaming in pain and the transmutation backfiring. His eyes fell on the suit of armor lying lifeless on the ground, the back of it, where he seal had been and further down, was completely shattered.

* * *

The screaming had stopped. The rumble of a transmutation had stopped. Ed was so close but he'd lost the direction to go next.

He heard a voice calling for help, just a blocks away. It was Alison. He took off running again just as Hohenheim had finally caught up. The older man hadn't had a chance to catch his breath yet before he let out a groan and started to follow the young man again.

"Ed! Thank god!" Ali cried with relief when she saw the blonde.

"Where's Al, what happened?" Edward pleaded.

"He's inside, hurry, I need your help!" She pulled him inside.

Edward stood there in the threshold and stared at the blonde boy on the floor. Ed's eyes were wide and he felt he couldn't breath.

"Brother!" Alphonse called to Edward happily.

"Al…how…?" Ed stammered and fell to his knees in front of his brother's newly restored body.

"We need to get him back to my place and get a doctor." Alison interrupted and began to help Al to his feet.

Edward's mind immediately switched to protecting his younger brother and he stood on Al's other side to help him stay balanced.

The trio passed by Hohenheim as they escorted the frail Alphonse out of the building.

"What happened? Is that Alphonse?!" Hohenheim questioned worriedly.

"We'll talk about it later. We need to get him somewhere safe." Alison responded.

* * *

Alison sat on the stoop outside the building she was staying in. There was a local doctor who had agreed to keep what he'd seen quiet. He was grateful for everything she had done for the city. He insisted on patching up her face as well. She hadn't even noticed the blood caked on her cheek or the back eye, or the lacerations on her forehead and cheek. Or the blood on the back of her head and the bruise across her abdomen.

The doctor had made sure Alphonse didn't have any visible ailments and told them what to look for if he did.

Alphonse was resting and Edward had been by his side from the moment they left that rundown house. Alison assumed it would be good to let them have some privacy, so she sat outside at four in the morning and stared at the stars. She was honestly surprised Edward hadn't kicked his father out yet.

She had already made the verdict to stay. And walking away from her way home sealed the deal. She had worried before if she would feel some sort of regret for picking this world over her own. And while she did feel some guilt, she mainly felt like a weight had been lifted from her. She made her decision and now there was no turning back.

Hohenheim stepped out of the building and sighed.

"Thank you." He told her quietly.

"For what?"

"Everything you've done for them." He smiled. "I must rest. I will return tomorrow if that is okay."

"Fine by me. The rest is up to them." She shrugged. Hohenheim chuckled and walked away.

"Please, be careful." He bid his farewell and disappeared down the street.

She returned to her room awhile later. Alphonse was asleep in her bed while his brother kept a watchful eye over him.

When Edward turned to greet her she could see he'd been crying. Tears of joy, hopefully. He stood from his seat beside the bed and crossed the room to envelop her in his arms. When he pulled away he frowned as he looked over the black eye and lacerations. He ran a gentle thumb over the bruise there.

"I'm fine." She insisted and gently removed his hand from her face.

"Good." He sighed with relief. "What the _hell_ were you thinking?!" He suddenly yelled. "Why didn't you come find me or get help? Why the fuck did you go in there alone?! You could have died! Alphonse almost died!"

"We're both alive, aren't we?" She countered.

"That isn't the point!"

"That is _exactly_ the point!" She argued. "If I had waited they could have moved him or hurt him. That wasn't a risk I was willing to take."

Edward closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He needed to calm down. The past twelve hours had been a cluster fuck. So many thoughts and emotions were running through his brain and it felt impossible to process them all.

"How did you pull this off?" He asked softly and gestured to Alphonse.

"Ed, it is very late and I am exhausted. I can tell you are too. Let's get some sleep and we'll talk about this when the sun is up." She sighed.

Edward wasn't keen on letting her off the hook just yet, but she was right. They both needed rest.

"Couch or chair?" She asked him.

"I'll take the chair. In case Al wakes up." He answered. Alison nodded and curled up on the couch to sleep.

* * *

When Ed woke up the following morning, Alison wasn't in the room.

Where the hell had she gone?

"She went to get some food." Al's voice startled him. He wasn't aware he had woken up.

"Al, how are you feeling?" He asked with a gentle smile.

"Weak. And really hungry. I forgot how awful hunger felt." He chuckled. He winced when he sat up in the bed.

"Alphonse…what happened last night?" Edward asked hesitantly.

"Dad and I talked for awhile. And after that we parted ways for the night. I began heading back here. Then Kimblee and some of his men approached me and threatened to hurt the people of Liore if I didn't follow them. I thought maybe they just wanted to know about my soul in the armor. Like Greed had. But they were just using me as bait for Alison." He frowned. "They caught her and tied her up and put us both in a room with an array on the floor. Kimblee planned to use her to make a stone for himself." Al explained.

"How did your soul get back in your body?" Ed asked.

"Kimblee destroyed my seal." Al told his brother.

Edward felt such a rage rise up in him that he knew if he ever saw Kimblee again he may kill him.

"He was never planning to let either of us leave that house. It was only when things turned sour that he left."

"What about inside the gate?" Ed prodded.

"I saw Asta! She was so pretty!" Al said in amazement. "She had separated from Alison. But…" Alphonse seemed to remember something and grimaced.

"What is it?"

"I think Alison gave up her chance of going home to save me." He said quietly. "I heard her tell the Truth, that she had made her decision."

Edward felt a strange mixture between joy and guilt. If she had really given up her only chance of going home to save his brother, not only would his brother now have his body back, but she would stay in this world as well. But what if she hadn't wanted to stay? She never told him what she decided. What if she gave up her way home because she felt obligated to save Alphonse?

"If she did that to save me…" Al's voice shook a little. "I want her to know I'm sorry. She must resent me."

"Al, it's okay. You know as well as I do she would never feel that way towards you." Edward smiled at his brother.

The door opened and Alison walked in with a couple if brown bags.

"Al, I didn't know what you'd want so I kind of got you everything and anything they'd give me. I figured if you're anything like your brother, you aren't picky." She spoke casually as she shut the door. "What's wrong?" She asked when she felt the serious tone of the room.

"I'm sorry." Al croaked out.

"Sorry? Why? What's wrong? What happened?" She sounded panicked.

"You gave up your chance to return to your world to save me." He felt tears well up in his eyes. He forgot how much they could make his eyes burn.

Edward looked forlornly at his hands. He felt guilty as well. He'd told her he would give her time to make her choice. And then she was forced to make one. And if she regretted the choice she made, she might blame them.

"Geeze, it's like you two feed off of guilt." She murmured. "Look, Al, it's complicated to explain….actually it's not complicated at all." She sighed and put the bags down. "I didn't give anything up. I had already decided to stay here. In this world." She said and sat on the edge of the bed.

Ed looked at her in shock. She looked from Alphonse and looked Edward in the eyes.

"I should have told you when you first got to Liore. There was just so much going on and I wanted a better time to tell you. I'm not leaving. I'm staying here." She told him softly and gently took his automail hand in hers. "Now," Her tone changed. "Are all negative and guilty thoughts taken care of?" She looked between the brothers. They glanced at each other before nodding. "Good. Then eat. Alphonse isn't going anywhere soon if he doesn't regain some strength.

Edward watched her carefully. He still had so many questions, so many things he wanted to say. Emotions and tensions were high at the moment. There were so many next steps to take to ensure Al's body recovered from the time behind the Gate. Edward would talk to Alison when the dust settled. For now, he was going to enjoy being with her, and having his brother back in his flesh body.

* * *

Alphonse's recovery was going amazingly well. Hohenheim openly cried when he laid eyes on him again. His tears were partly from joy, and partly from seeing his youngest son so frail and feeling responsible for it.

Of course, that started some strange argument between Edward and his father over who was more to blame over Al ending up in armor in the first place. Alison was starting to think the glutton for guilt thing was hereditary.

Hohenheim informed the teens that he had helped cultivate what was now considered alkehestry in Xing and offered to use these skills to help Alphonse recover faster.

It had been a couple of weeks since Alphonse regained his body. He was now able to walk with the help of a cane, though he did tire easy. He always kept saying he needed to become strong again to be able to help fight the homunculi. He even expressed a little regret in having not stayed in his nearly invulnerable armor to be of better use. However, he was quick to add how grateful he was to have his body back.

Alison understood what he meant. In the state he was in, he wasn't fit to fight. But the Promised Day was still a little ways away. She tried to instill confidence in him that he'd be back to kicking ass before then.

Alison was still helping in Liore. She'd been working far more lately, trying to get as much done as she could. The teens had plans to go to travel as soon as Alphonse was able to. First stop would be Rush Valley. Edward and Hohenheim had also been doing their part to rebuild.

Edward approached the brunette as she hovered over some papers on a table. Another young man stood close to her. Edward didn't enjoy the feeling of jealousy. And he hated that he felt the feeling of possessiveness for the woman when he saw the stranger standing so close to her. It only fueled his feelings when the young man placed a hand on the middle of her back. It was a little pleasing, however, to see her casually move his hand away and put space between them.

"Hey." He called to her with a smile. She turned around and returned the smile. It always made his chest flutter the way she always looked so happy to see him.

"Hey! Done already?" She asked. Edward had been helping rebuild a school and its schoolyard.

"Yeah. You wanna grab something to eat?" He asked.

"She's kind of busy at the moment." The other young man stepped forward. He turned towards her. "We really should get this finished." He told her. She knew he was being a jerk but he was right.

"Yeah. Take those plans to Voshom and have him double check them. I'll be there in a minute."

The young man sized Edward up before turning to leave.

"He's the son of the man who is drawing up the plans to rebuild the city." Alison told her blonde companion.

"He seems to have a thing for you." Edward glared at the young man's back.

"He does. He made that very clear when we first started working together. I also made it clear I was not in anyway interested." She paused for a moment and looked at him. "Told him I already had someone." She smiled and laced her fingers with his.

He couldn't help the grin that spread over his face. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. He was only a little ashamed that he hoped that asshole had seen them kiss.

"I'll be done soon." She brushed his bangs out of his face. "Then we can get something to eat."

The couple walked back to the room after having grabbed a bite to eat and something for Alphonse. Once the younger Elric was able to eat more, his appetite quickly began to mimic his brother's.

"There's a train leaving tomorrow for the south. If Al is up to it, you wanna board it?" Alison asked Edward as they walked along the new streets of Liore.

"Definitely. Al is becoming restless. He's about to go stir crazy if he doesn't go somewhere soon." Ed chuckled. "Is your work here done?"

"I think I've done enough. They can handle the rest." She said and stretched her arms above her head.

"I've been wanting to ask you something, but I wanted to wait until the dust cleared." Edward spoke. "Why did you give up your chance to go home?"

Alison stopped and stared at him with a bewildered look.

"Do you really think I would have just left Alphonse to die?" Her voice was edging on anger. She felt her hand twitch. She wanted to slap him.

"That's not what I meant." He sighed and rubbed his head. He tried to think of the words to say. Open, raw, honesty. That's what she'd given him when she left Resembool. He needed to give her the same. Equivalent Exchange.

"You said you'd already made your choice." He started. "I just…I need to know why."

She understood now. Despite her telling him her choice was made before the stunt Kimblee pulled, he was still uncertain. He worried the situation had forced her hand when she hadn't really come to a conclusion yet.

"You…maybe you should have gone home." He said. She took a step back and furrowed her brows at him. If she hadn't put the space between them, she really would have slapped him that time. It felt like she'd been kicked in the chest.

"Excuse me?" She seethed.

"You would be safe."

"And Alphonse would be dead."

"I mean…before all of that. You should have let Asta separate from you and go home awhile ago." He corrected.

"Edward, what the hell are you going on about?" She clenched her jaw. Another kick to the chest. "After everything that's happened between us, fighting together, _sleeping_ together, now you're going to say I should have left? What the _fuck_ is your problem!?"

He wouldn't look at her. Why the fuck wouldn't he look at her?

She couldn't decide if she wanted to cry or punch him. How could he say that?

"I would rather you go home and I never see you again, than you be killed." He whispered. There it was. That part of him that believed he could taint anything he touched resurfaced; that anyone who gets mixed up with them could die. He loved her. And he couldn't stand for her to die because of him. She almost had already. Too many times.

"You're such an arrogant fucking idiot!" She snapped. "I'm not running away from that fight! We've come this far and I'm not turning back now! I can't! I would rather risk everything to have a life here, than go back and live a life without you in it!"

He finally looked at her. Here she was, angry and hurt. But despite that she was fighting. She was refusing to abandon him. Just like the few others in his life that he trusted. They wouldn't abandon him and his brother. And neither would she. She already proved that when she chose Alphonse over her home world.

"Ali…"

"Shut up." She snapped. "Edward Elric, you listen, and you listen good. I didn't choose to save your brother because I felt I had to. I didn't choose to walk away from my chance of returning to my world because Kimblee backed me into a corner. I chose to stay here because I fucking love you and I want to be here _with you_." She stared up at him, a range of emotions flashing through her eyes. Passion, pain, anger.

In the next moment she was pulled tightly against his chest.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I just…I didn't want all of this to be because you felt obligated."

"Don't be stupid." She murmured in to his chest. "Pretty sure I fell for you the first time I saw you." She said it so quietly he almost didn't hear it.

"When things get dangerous, I want you to go to Xing." He said softly. He couldn't put a world between her and the Homunculi. But maybe he could put a desert.

"Fuck you. I'm not doing that." Her words were clear despite being muffled by his chest.

"I love you." He whispered in her hair.

She pulled away and stared into his eyes before smiling gently.

"I love you, too. But if you tell me to run away from this fight again, I'll slap you. Got that?"

He couldn't help but chuckle. Her fiery resolve was one of the reasons he loved her. He leaned down and kissed her deeply.

A wolf whistle from someone in the streets reminded them that this had all been in public view. They broke away and were both silently thankful the rest of the people in town were too caught up in their own lives to care about what was going on between two teenagers.

"We should bring Al his food." Ali cleared her throat.

"Yeah. I forgot how grumpy he gets when he's hungry." Ed grimaced at the thought of the moody Alphonse.

Alison seemed to have fun explaining to Edward what the term "hangry" meant as they walked back together.


	14. Chapter 14

Winry waved goodbye to one of her patrons as they left the shop.

"Hey, Winry." Ed's voice made her turn around.

Winry dropped her wrench, proving it wasn't permanently attached to her hand.

"Alphonse?" She choked out and pressed her hands over her mouth. She eyed the thin young man. He'd regained most of his weight, but he was still very thin. He still needed the assistance of a cane at time, but he was usually able to walk on his own.

"Hi, Winry." He smiled.

She rushed to the youngest Elric and took his face in her hands. She turned his face side to side and grabbed at his arms, patting him up and down as if to make sure it wasn't some sort of trick.

"How did you…Alphonse…I can't believe it. You did it." Tears ran down her face and she hugged him tightly.

Alphonse gladly hugged her back. He had been waiting so long to feel her again.

"What about you, Ed?" She pulled away and wiped her eyes. "Did you get your arm angry leg back?"

"Not yet. As of now, you still have a me as a customer." Edward grinned sheepishly.

Winry ushered the three in and they explained what happened over tea that Mr. Garfiel provided.

"So you gave up your passage home for Al's body?" Winry asked.

"Not exactly. It's hard to say I gave it up, when I'd already made the choice to stay." She said and glanced at Edward. He smiled at her at looked at her softly, even lovingly.

Winry looked like she had literal stars in her eyes.

"I knew it!" She cheered. "I knew you would stay for him!"

Edward and Alison immediately both felt their faces turning red. Just because they were now very clear on where they stood with each other didn't mean they enjoyed the attention.

"We ran into our dad in Liore, too!" Alphonse said excitedly, thankfully changing the subject.

"Really? Why was he there?" Winry took to the subject change easily.

The four talked awhile longer, mainly about where they were going next and all the foods Al couldn't wait to eat.

"I want to go with you to Resembool when you go see Granny!" Winry said. "Could you guys stick around another few days? Let me take care of some appointments so I can go with you?"

"Of course!" Alphonse agreed happily.

Taking the younger Elric shopping for clothing had been something Alphonse didn't realize he'd enjoy so much. He mostly enjoyed Winry fawning over him straightening the clothing he tried on and helping him to look presentable.

"You look so handsome!" Alison smiled at the young man as he left the boutique in his new clothing.

It was nice. For a few days or weeks, they could pretend like things were fine. They could pretend that the country wasn't being run by a puppeteering Homunculus. They could imagine that things were normal, and that their very lives weren't on the line, and previously never were. Just a bunch of ordinary teenagers.

* * *

"How is he taller than me?" Edward squinted at his brother as he walked ahead with Winry to the train station.

"Seriously?" Alison chuckled. "I'm pretty sure you two are the same height."

"He's taller than Winry."

"Ed, _you're_ taller than Winry now. For someone so obsessed with height, how have you not noticed you've gotten taller since we met?"

A look of pure elation seemed to sink into Edward. He stopped and looked at the brunette. He shoved her against his chest and laid a hand flat on her head. He was fucking measuring the difference.

"I _have_ gotten taller!" He yelled so loudly the entire station heard him.

"You are ridiculous." Ali rolled her eyes at the man with starry eyes.

* * *

The teens continued on the journey. Alison called it Alphonse's Come Back Tour. She tried to explain what that meant but it didn't do much good.

Winry and Alphonse always seemed close before. But now that he had his body back, it was like they were always touching one another. Whether it be a hand on a shoulder, or arms linked.

"She's gonna bang him." Alison said abrutply while she and Ed sat on the porch of the Rockbell home.

Winry and Alphonse were laying out on the grass, watching clouds. Anytime Alphonse said he missed something as a child, they made sure he got to do it. In this case, it was laying under the sun, in the grass, watching the clouds go by.

"What!? He's too young for that!" Ed's surprised reaction had been expected. Just because he did adult things like have sex, didn't mean his brother was mature enough for those things. He was too young! Too innocent!

"He's barely a year younger than you, Ed." She pointed out. "And he just happened to get his body back in his teenage years. His hormones must be going crazy."

"What makes you think it's going to be him and Winry?" Edward frowned.

"Look at them. They're more inseparable now than they were before. Besides," She gave him a mischievous smirk. "She looks at him the way I look at you when I want you."

Edward gulped and his face turned red. He knew that look she mentioned. And now that she said something, he has seen Winry looking at his brother that way a time or two, as well as Al looking at her that way.

"Regardless, he doesn't need to rush into things."

"They've been waiting all this time to have a physical relationship. Who knows how long the emotional one has been going on. I feel like rushing things isn't applicable here." Alison noted.

"Relationship? Al would have mentioned if he and Winry were together like that, right?" He questioned. He thought his little brother told him everything.

"It may have not been a solidified relationship with labels and whatnot. But they've acted that way towards each other for awhile now. Besides, does Al know about everything between us?" She pointed out. "Does he know that we've had sex? Or that we've told each other we love each other?"

Edward looked down. She had a point. He was just as guilty about keeping things from Alphonse.

"Just because he doesn't share some things with you, doesn't mean he isn't still your little brother. And it doesn't mean he doesn't still need you."

"You're right." Edward sighed.

"I know I am. So why don't we give them privacy when it seems they want it?" She suggested and laced her fingers with his and leaned in close. "And we can have a little privacy of our own." She purred in his ear.

Alphonse sat on the front porch that evening, enjoying the warm breeze run through his hair. He'd had it cut shorter, like when he was a kid.

Winry and Alison were in the kitchen, cooking and baking a feast. Winry was making him all the dishes he missed as a kid, and Alison was making a range of ones from her home.

Edward came and sat down next to his brother.

"Ed?" Al sounded concerned. His brother had an odd look on his face. It was unsettling.

"We need to talk!" He burst out, like he'd been holding his breath for far too long.

"Is everything alright brother?"

"You have your body back now. And you're a teenager." Edward closed his eyes and tried to steady his voice. "You're going to experience…urges."

Oh god no.

"E-Ed, we really don't have to have this talk! I know about puberty and sex and stuff!" Alphonse said quickly.

"You can't learn everything from a book, Al!" Edward retorted.

"How do _you_ even know about it, huh?!" Alphonse countered. Edward's face went as red as a tomato.

"B-because I-uh- I'm the older brother here! Don't ask me such things!" Edward flipped the tone.

"What are those two arguing about?" Winry mused, only hearing their muffled voices from the kitchen.

Edward came inside and practically collapsed in a kitchen chair and banged his head on the table.

"I told you to leave it alone." Alison chastised calmly. Ed let out a muffled whimper in return. His ears were crimson, and if his face was showing, they'd see it was the same.

Winry looked between the two, wondering just what they were talking about.

* * *

The next stop on the _Come Back_ tour was Dublith, then to the southwest to the Hughes household. Just because Al was still regaining strength didn't mean Izumi would go easy on him. She gave him his first beating back in his body before hugging both of the brothers.

Of course, Izumi demanded a detailed report of exactly what and how it happened.

"I'm sorry, Alphonse." Alison said after telling the detailed story. "I know you didn't want to use human souls to get your body back. But my choices were to either let Kimblee kill us, or follow Asta's plan. And maybe in some selfish self-preservation, I wasn't ready to die and I saw the chance to get your body back. So I took it. I hope you can forgive me." Alison hung her head.

"You aren't selfish for wanting to live." Izumi said softly. "You can still make the right choice under the wrong circumstances. Those men tried to kill you both. Asta wasn't going to let them, and she helped you get Al's body back in the process."

Al leaned over and gently touched Alison's forearm.

"It isn't your fault how it happened." He told her with a gentle smile. "It's true we didn't want to use human souls. But I'm still grateful for having my body back. Asta made the choice that I wouldn't have been able to make."

Alison breathed a sigh of relief. She had held that in for so long. She didn't want Al to hate her for how she got his body back.

"When all of this is over, I want to find a way to remove the stone's power from me." She told Edward when they were alone. They were cleaning the dishes after dinner at the Curtis home. Alison would wash the dishes and hand them to Ed to dry. "I hate it. The feeling of so many souls attached to mine. I've had nightmares where I swear I can hear them."

"We'll figure out a way to do that." He promised her.

"So, any ideas on how to get your limbs back?" She asked.

"Still working some theories out of that one. But Al has his body back, and really that's all I care about. If I have to live with automail forever, so be it." He replied.

"We can still try." She encouraged him. "After all that, and after this Promised Day thing…what do you plan to do after that?"

"I don't know." He mused. "Maybe do some travelling. Check out Xing and their alkehestry."

Alison chuckled. "Can't sit still, huh?"

"Maybe." He gave her a cheesy grin. "Or maybe go back to Resembool. Rebuild our old home. Relax for once." He sighed.

"You could do both." She suggested.

Ed seemed to smile at the idea.

"Both, huh? Both sounds nice." Ed dried a plate thoughtfully. "I guess…we can decide then." He said softly.

"We?" How could such a little word make her heart flutter so much?

"Yeah. I mean, you'll be there too, right?" He gave her a meaningful look.

"I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd rather be." She said with a soft, loving smile.

* * *

Next stop was the Hughes household. Alphonse was quickly regaining body mass with all the food everyone was making for him. And Edward continuously sparred with his younger brother to make sure his body regained its strength and agility. This combined with the healing techniques Hohenheim showed Alison helped him stave off fatigue.

It was in Central that the idea of taking Alphonse to a bar came up. Expectedly, it didn't take much to get the younger man drunk.

When they returned to the dorms, Edward was about to question sleeping arrangements. There were only two beds in the dorm. His questions were answered when he turned around and saw that Alphonse and Winry had gone to the room he'd shared with his brother and shut the door behind them.

"Called it." Ali smirked.

Edward shot her a halfhearted glare.

"Don't pout." She nudged him. She ran her hands up his chest and leaned in, brushing her lips against his neck. "You can share a bed with me tonight." She purred.

That suggestion changed his mood fairly quickly.

* * *

Alphonse had missed so many things. He missed the way the breeze felt against his face. The smell of an old book or scent of a bouquet of flowers. It had all taken some adjusting. Perhaps spending the time holed up in Liore during his few weeks of having his body back had been a good thing. It helped him readjust to having so many senses returned to him. It had been so overwhelming when he first woke. The light hurt his eyes. The bounce of the bed springs squeaking under his every move grated his nerves. Even an apple tasted too sweet.

He knew it would take time to learn to tune out all the sensations he didn't want to focus on. He'd have to relearn to ignore how his lower back ached after sitting on the train too long. He would learn to ignore bad smells when he walked past a trashcan. It would take time. But with the help of those who cared about him, he knew it was possible.

Winry kissed him in Resembool. It was the first time he'd been kissed since he was a child. All the sensations of it were so overwhelming and Alphonse felt his chest would burst. The way she smelled, the texture of her lips against his, her taste, it was a whirlwind of sensation and emotion.

Alphonse forgot that one could feel emotions physically as well. The swelling he felt in his chest watching his brother look more carefree than he had in ages. The softness he felt towards Alison, who had made it possible, and loved his brother so much.

His emotions around Winry were on a vast spectrum. Sometimes his heart would pound, his hands would shake, and his mouth would go dry. Other times he had a strange feeling coil in his guts and his chest would flutter. So the first time they'd touched each other beyond kissing, it felt like he would lose his mind. He remembered how nice it could feel to hug someone. And kissing Winry had stirred something inside of him. But _that_ , the things they'd done, was a whole other show all together. Now he understood why Edward would sometimes sneak off to be alone with Alison.

* * *

Edward had to return to work, and things began to fall back into a kind of normalcy. Alison was spending the nice day reading in the park. Summer had started to transition into fall and she wanted to enjoy the weather that was just right. Not too hot. Not too cold.

Alphonse and Winry were having lunch together before she had to return to Rush Valley.

"What do you want?" Alison demaned as a man came and sat next to her in the park.

"Noticed the tin can is back in a flesh and blood body." The man said casually. "Mind telling me how that happened?"

"Well you see, I saved a unicorn and he offered me two wishes. The first one I asked for Alphonse to have his body back. The second that you'd roll over and die. Still waiting on that second wish."

The man glared at her.

"I don't care what you did, as long as it didn't jeopardize your purpose to us. We agreed to let you brats run loose if you didn't cause trouble. It's more trouble to keep you animals locked up. But if you start messing things up, you'll be deaf, mute, and crippled in a cage somewhere." He snarled.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head." She smiled. "All is well. Now get away from me." She rolled her eyes and went back to her book.

"Keep your nose clean, brat." He sneered and walked away.

She had already discussed this with Edward and Alphonse. While it would be a little vindicating to see the homunculi tear Kimblee apart, it could be problematic if they were to find out that Asta was now gone as well as part of the stone's power. They probably would decide to lock Alison and possibly the Elrics up to prevent any further use of the stone's power.

* * *

"It's been a year." Edward announced suddenly.

"What?" Alison questioned.

The two were having dinner together at a little hole in the wall favorite or theirs. Alison thought briefly about how it was "their" place. It made her feel just a little giddy.

Alphonse stayed alone at the dorm. With all the commotion following his return into a flesh body, he barely had any time to himself. So he insisted the couple go out alone.

"A year since you came here." Edward explained. He watched the gears turn in his lover's head before something seemed to dawn on her.

"Shit. I forgot my birthday." She said.

"How the hell did you do that?"

"The days have just been kinda meshin' together at the point." She said and made a gesture of cramming things together.

"We'll have to celebrate." He grinned.

"Please don't. If we have another party I'm gonna die." She groaned. The _come back_ tour had been exhausting.

Ed chuckled and looked fondly at the woman. He raised his glass.

"Cheers to a year." He said

"And to many more." She raised her glass and clinked it against his.

Many more indeed, he hoped.

Later that night, he held her in his arms and listened to her music play softly.

"Do you believe in fate?" Alison asked suddenly.

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "I suppose not. It can't really be proven through any scientific method. But then again, half the shit I've seen in the past year seems hard to prove scientifically. Why?"

"It sounds dumb." She murmured against his chest. "But it just seems no matter what happens we always end up back with each other. The fact that you were the one to find me a year ago. That you tracked me down and convinced me to travel with you. Then we inadvertently crossed paths in Dublith. Then again in Liore."

"Well, we were sent to Liore. And when the Colonel said 'moon goddess' I was pretty confident it was you." He said pointedly.

"I know. But I kind of wonder, if circumstances were different; if we were from the same world, same town, whatever, and if we'd just met at school or a party if we would still end up together. Maybe I'm just being sappy or something." She chuckled.

"You're the first person I ever felt like this with." He admitted suddenly. "And when I first saw you, my initial thought was how beautiful you were. Then when you took off…I just had this compulsion to go after you. I don't know if that has anything to do with fate or whatever." He rolled her on to her back and leaned over her. "All I know is running after you that day was probably the best decision I ever made."

"Listen to you, bein' all mushy." She grinned and pushed gently at his chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him gently. "You're like a bruised banana." She squished his cheeks together, causing his lips to pucker comically.

"Stop." He groaned at the abuse being done to his face.

"But I like mushy Ed." She grinned wider.

He gave her face similar treatment and she burst with laughter at how the two of them must have looked.

"If this is all just a preplanned destiny, does that mean you're not going to run off anymore? Since you'll just end up back with me anyways." He smirked.

"If it means I'll always be lead back to you," She gazed up at him. "I could believe in fate." She leaned up and smiled against his lips.

He pulled her closer against himself and whispered in her ear, "I think it could make me a believer, too." He smirked as he felt a shiver run through her.

Fate. Destiny. Prophecy. Or maybe just coincidence. Whatever forces may be that brought them together, they were going to cling to each other for as long as possible.

* * *

Despite Mustang's team having been split up and knowing that a Homunculus was running the country and scheming with a centuries old puppeteer under Central, they all still had to pretend nothing had changed.

Edward still had to go to Head Quarters, and still had to take missions. Like nothing had changed at all. This particular mission was to investigate an alarming amount of rare chimeras that had essentially taken over a town. It was reported that the inhabitants of the town were no match against the vicious creatures. The people who weren't mauled to death had abandoned the town. Edward was charged with putting an end to the creatures and finding out where they were coming from.

"I'm serious! You're both staying here!" Edward yelled at his brother and his girlfriend. The two glanced at each other with amusement from their seat on the couch.

"It's so cute when he thinks he can tell us what to do, right?" Alison mentioned to Alphonse.

"Adorable." Al replied, unamused.

"Don't brush me off!" He hollered. "You've never gone up against a hoard of chimeras before," He pointed at Alison. "And you're in a flesh body now and could get seriously hurt!" He pointed to Alphonse.

"You're in a flesh body." Al stated plainly with a shrug.

"I-I that's different!"

"Back home I was an avid hunter. Did it all the time with my dad and brother." Alison added. "I'm actually really good with a gun."

"That's not the same!"

"I'm going to go pack." Alphonse stood from the couch.

"Me too. Calm down darlin', or you'll pop a vessell." Alison told Edward as she kissed him on the cheek. She knew he secretly liked it when her accent came out, so she secretly used it on purpose when he was being irate.

Ed watched helplessly as the pair left him to go pack. He realized his job of protecting his loved ones was becoming increasingly more frustrating.


	15. Chapter 15

"You can't be serious!" Alphonse's outburst sent him into a coughing fit.

"Al, just listen to yourself" Edward attempted to reason with his brother.

"It's just a scratchy throat." The younger insisted.

"It's a cold." Alison corrected. "And your immune system is shit. So a cold could turn into a sinus infection. Which could lead to mucus in your lung which turns to bronchitis which could then turn to pneumonia. You are staying _here."_

"So I'm just expected to sit here while the two of you go out and hunt down chimeras?" Al crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

"No. I've already enlisted the help of someone to make sure you're taken care of," Alison replied.

"What? Who?" Ed questioned. The brunette looked away and mumbled a name. "What?!"

"They have their own personal doctor! And he was more than happy to offer his help! He said his family has remedies that have been used for generations! The guy is as healthy as a horse! It must have some truth to it!" Ali defended her choice.

"I couldn't hear the name but it almost sounds like Major Armstrong is going to be taking care of me," Al said with a nervous chuckle. His expression quickly changed when he realized he was correct.

A swift knock came at the door.

"That's probably the Major now." Alison murmured and moved to the door.

"I don't need a babysitter!" Alphonse protested.

"We aren't arguing about this anymore! You're staying here, the Major is going to take care of you, _end of discussion_!"

Alison opened the door and was not disappointed to find Major Armstrong in all of his...glory.

"Dear Alphonse, I am honored that you are allowing me to tend to you during your time in need!" Armstrong burst through. Alphonse very much wanted to correct the major and tell him that it wasn't his idea, but he was far too polite for that.

"Are you sure we aren't inconveniencing you, Major?" Alison asked with a polite smile.

"Yes! I'm fine, really! I would hate to cause you trouble!" Alphonse piped up before stifling a cough.

"Not at all, Alphonse! It is my immense pleasure to see to your recovery! Why there are multiple healing techniques practiced by our family doctors that have been passed down for generations!"

"Yay." Alphonse sighed unenthusiastically.

"Come now, Alphonse. The sooner we get you to the Armstrong Estate, the sooner you'll be back to tip-top health!" The Major practically dragged Alphonse out of the dorm, his suitcase tossed over his shoulder as if it weighed no more than a shirt.

"Did I ever mention that Al can hold one hell of a grudge?" Edward murmured.

"I figured this would end me up on a shit list of sorts for a while." Alison sighed. "But hopefully after he's feeling better he'll find it in his heart to forgive me."

"You? He'll forgive you in no time. It's me he'll be mad at forever for agreeing to this." Ed chuckled.

* * *

The trains didn't go by their destination so the teens had to take a train that stopped in a town closest to their intended stop.

A report came down the previous day that some citizens were starting to return to the town and begin their efforts in rebuilding. A group of soldiers had managed to clear out a majority of the chimeras, making the rebuilding possible.

It was the task of the Fullmetal Alchemist to investigate where the chimeras had originated from and to snuff any remaining ones out.

The teens managed to hitch a ride with a group of builders returning to the town with more supplies.

"There's a system of caves that runs under the town." A local informed the teens. When they got to the town, they started helping out with some of the cleanups. The labor paid off with loose lips about the town. "Some think that's where the beasts are comin' from."

"Did the soldiers check them out?" Ed asked.

"Nah." The man shrugged. "They took out a dozen or so. Waited about a week. None came back so they left. The caves are mostly unexplored, save for the occasional explorers. Nothing of interest has ever been reported to be found down there." The man threw a shovel over his shoulder and wiped his brow.

"But you feel differently." Alison inferred. The man shrugged.

"Dunno where else they would've been hiding." He drawled.

"Thanks for your help." Ed shook the man's hand.

"Same to you." The man grinned.

A loud siren sounded off overhead.

"What is that?" Alison asked.

"Another one's shown up." The local frowned.

"CHIMERA AT EASTERN GATE. REPEAT. CHIMERA AT EASTERN GATE." A calm, clear voice boomed overhead.

"Stay here." Ed directed Ali and took off towards the eastern gate.

"Like hell," She grumbled and followed close behind.

When the teens made it to the Eastern Gate, a group of locals was shooting at a large chimera that resembled a cockatrice.

The beast screeched as it was pelted with bullets before it fell lifeless to the ground.

"That's the first one that's come around in a while." A local murmured.

"What are children doing out here?" The voice of a woman came from behind the teens examining the situation.

"We're not children!" Edward flung around with a glare. "I'm a State Alchemist!"

"Oh! And what is a State Alchemist doing out here? I thought the military was done here." The woman asked. She was an older woman, late fifties or early sixties. Her hair was white, tied into a tight bun, with pale green eyes.

"Mrs. Adair! I thought we told you to take a rest?" Another local approached the woman with a warm smile.

"You know I can't do that!" The woman chuckled.

"You've already done so much!" Another approached.

"And I won't stop until this town is back in tip-top shape! Now, I'd like to meet this young State Alchemist." She smiled warmly at the teens. "Leslie Adair," She extended a hand to Edward.

"Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist." He replied and took her hand.

"And your friend?"

"Alison Rigby." Alison shook her hand as well.

"Well then, may I ask what a State Alchemist is doing here? Are you here to help the rebuilding efforts?" Leslie asked.

"Mostly just here to gather some information about the chimeras spotted, damages, boring paperwork, really," Ed replied with a shrug.

"I'm sure the people here will be more than happy to give you the information you need. Especially with a little help putting the town back together." Leslie said with a playful wink. "I've been leading the task force of rebuilding this town. My family has lived here for generations so I'm doing all I can to restore this place back to its former glory. Maybe I can be of some assistance."

"That would be great!" Ed smiled.

"Do either of you have a place to stay tonight? Last I saw the hotels were far from up and running." She asked.

"No, we were going to tend to the details of housing later," Alison replied.

"The two of you are more than welcome to stay at my home! I have plenty of room.

"That's very generous, thank you!" The brunette smiled.

* * *

"Nice place." Ed mused allowed as the teens followed the woman into her home. It was a large manor on the outskirts of town.

"Thank you. Though it does get lonely, alone in the big house. My husband was a skilled alchemist who did contract work for the military at times. It set us up quite nicely." The woman smiled.

"Where is your husband now?" Alison asked.

"Underground, I'm afraid." She replied.

"Sorry to hear that." Ali apologized.

"Don't be. You know, working with the military, we often rubbed elbows with some of the military's elite. We would host parties here often. Even King Bradley attended a few of our parties! It was so exciting!" The woman told the story of her home. "We built so many memories in this house, I couldn't bear to abandon it when the chimeras came."

"You mean you didn't evacuate?" Ed asked incredulously.

"To be honest, the infestation, as they called it, was exaggerated. I was able to fend off my home with an accurate shot and some ammunition. Now then, allow me to give the tour."

Leslie showed the couple around the house. The kitchen, den, library, bathroom, and where they'd be sleeping tonight. Leslie had no qualms with the young couple sharing a room. The bed they would be sharing was far more spacious than what they usually shared in the dorms.

"And now, my pride and joy." Leslie led them to the back yard. In the back was a beautifully maintained garden. Flowers of so many varieties of species and colors, perfectly trimmed shrubs. In the back was a pond surrounded by ornamental grasses.

"I used to garden before I started traveling so much." Ali murmured as she appreciated the garden. "Don't really have time now."

"I love to garden." Leslie smiled. "And my swans make for nice company."

"Swans?" Something hit the pit of her stomach.

"You don't like them?"

"I uh…haven't had the most pleasant experiences with them." Alison cleared her throat.

"I always thought their wings look like angel wings."

"Yeah, I've heard that said before…" She murmured. She subtly shook her head in an attempt to shoo the memories away.

A warm hand touched the center of her back. She looked to find Edward giving her a concerned look. She gave him a reassuring smile in return.

"I hope you're both early risers. We start work around here at sunrise." Leslie smiled. She looked at the two thoughtfully. "You two look pretty agile. Like you could climb around and squeeze in a small space."

"Um…Maybe?" Alison shrugged awkwardly.

"Would you be interested in the search groups?" She asked.

"Search groups?" Ed questioned.

"Yes," Leslie frowned. "A few children have gone missing during the whole ordeal. It is speculated by a few in town that they were playing in the woods and were picked off by some of the chimeras. Tragic, really. But several people are still searching in case the children are simply lost. Though perhaps at the very least, we can find a body for the families to bury."

"That's awful." Alison frowned solemnly. "I'd be happy to help."

"Same here." Ed agreed.

"Oh, thank you! The more eyes looking the better!" Leslie clapped her hands together and smiled. "Now, I'm going to go prepare dinner." She said and left the couple.

"The report mentioned a few casualties and injuries. It didn't say any of them were kids though." Ed frowned.

"Those poor children, getting picked off by chimeras." Alison shook her head. "Why don't we get settled in? We should probably turn in early tonight."

Ed nodded in agreement and followed his love back into the house.

* * *

Edward slept with Alison's back pressed against his chest and an arm around her waist. He was more exhausted than he thought as he fell asleep nearly immediately it seemed.

Alison relaxed against Edward and started to feel herself drift off to sleep.

Something woke her. She couldn't determine what it was. Her eyes fluttered open. Panic set in and she couldn't breathe. Suddenly, she found herself in the white expanse of the void again. She scrambled to her feet and looked around in terror.

She couldn't be here again. She just couldn't. This had to be a dream. Please, let it be a dream.

"Hello?!" She called out into the void. "Asta?!" No reply. Alison wasn't sure why she expected the princess to respond. She is gone now.

The brunette turned around once more and was startled to find an unfamiliar house standing alone in the distance. It hadn't been there just a moment ago.

Steeling her nerves, Alison trekked to the house. She walked up the front porch steps and slowly turned the doorknob. The door creaked open, as she stepped inside. The house was fully furnished but empty of a single person. The house was shabbily decorated; mostly just essential furniture without any wall décor or paint.

The kitchen sink had minimal dishes in it. Something told her that whoever lived here lived alone.

A strange noise brought her attention to a door at the other end of the kitchen. It sounded like a metal clattering. She gulped down her fear and walked to the door. When she opened it she found it led down a flight of stairs into a dark room. She looked for some kind of light switch but found none.

Holding on to the wall, she slowly felt her way down the steps. She made it to the floor and attempted to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, the only light coming from a small window in the basement. It still provided little light, it appeared to be night outside. She took small steps further into the basement. Her foot caught on something and she was tumbling to the floor before she could steady herself.

Picking herself up from the floor she saw a crate covered in a tarp in front of her. Her fall startled something within the crate. She could feel her blood run cold as the creature inside honked in surprise, followed by the sound of flapping wings.

She scrambled back, her heart pounding her chest. She'd been in this basement before. In this house. She was just too horrified to notice much about her surroundings when she was.

"No need to look so frightened." A cold voice whispered.

Alison's body ran ice cold at the sound of the voice. Her entire body trembled as she looked up. She found herself in a dark room, a figure standing in front of her. She looked back down to find large white feathers scattered along the floor. She slowly looked back to the figure in front of her. He stepped forward, allowing her to better see his features. But she already knew who it was by the sound of his voice.

"I'm going to make you an angel."

"Ali! Wake up! Ali!" Edward shook her as she thrashed and whimpered in her sleep.

Abruptly, her eyes popped open. Alison let out a gasp and nearly head-butted the blonde sitting up so quickly. The young woman was covered in a cold sweat, a terrified and bewildered look in her eyes.

"Hey, what happened?" Edward spoke softly, gently taking her hand. She squeezed his hand and closed her eyes for a few moments while she took a few deep breaths.

"Just…nightmares." Alison murmured finally. "Sorry to wake you."

"Don't worry about it. Are you going to be okay?" Edward was clearly worried about her.

"Yeah." She nodded.

She was the first to lie down, this time facing the blonde. He followed suit and pulled her close to him again. Alison took his automail arm and held it against her chest, fingers entwined with the metal digits as she held it tightly. She concentrated on the warmth of his body and the chill of his automail to ground her; to calm her mind and tell herself this was real.

* * *

It had stormed the first few days in town, delaying their search, and wiping away any usable tracks the children or chimeras may have left behind. This made the search for them increasingly difficult. The party was forced to just fan out and search.

The teens split up and went with different groups. Edward went with the part searching the eastern section of the forest, and Alison took the west.

It was a couple of hours after the searches began that Alison found herself in the southwest corner of the woods with another young man. His name was Gabriel. He was in his early twenties, a handsome young man with sandy colored hair and hazel eyes. He had lived in the town his entire life, had played in the woods as a child and hunted them as an adult. So the young man was said to be very familiar with the grounds.

"Do you hear that?" The young man stopped suddenly and listened. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked through them in the direction the noise came from. "It's a chimera!" He whispered. He put his binoculars away and pulled his hunting rifle from his back.

"Wait!" Alison stopped him. "What does it look like?" She asked.

"It's one of the smaller ones. Looks like some kind of large feline mixture. Panther maybe."

"It may have a habitat around here nearby. If we can follow it, it may lead us to the kids, or at least closer to them." Alison told him.

"If that thing is part cat, it's going to hear or smell us. It will kill us!" He whispered harshly.

"We follow it for now. If it attacks us, we kill it." She said thumbing to her own hunting rifle slung across her back. "We will keep a close eye on it so it doesn't surprise us."

Gabriel begrudgingly agreed. The two followed the chimera for about twenty minutes. At that point, a gunshot rang out further up ahead, probably from another searching local. It effectively startled the chimera away as it quickly took off.

"Dammit. Now we have to try and track it." Gabriel groaned. They tracked the chimera for another half hour, looking for paw prints or tufts of hair. It was near a large rock formation that they lost the trail. "Must've taken off over the rocks." Gabriel murmured. "It'll take forever to find out where it went from here."

"Hey, I found something!" Alison called.

"What is it?" He approached the woman. She was sweeping away leaves, twigs, and dirt to reveal wood boards placed neatly on the ground. She removed one of the boards to reveal it covered a large hole.

"What if this is an entrance to the cave? Do they reach this far out here?" Alison asked.

"I have no idea. They're mostly unexplored."

"No chimera covered this hole up with boards." Alison mused.

"It could have been put here by another hunter, to keep anyone from falling in."

"Maybe, It's still worth checking out though." She said and chucked the boards to the side.

"Wait, you aren't planning on going down there, are you?" He asked incredulously. "We should go get back up!"

"Fine. You go get back up. I'm going to explore this hole. And that's what she said." Alison shrugged her gun and her pack off her back. She dug through the pack and produced a series of ropes and a flashlight. She stopped and stared at Gabriel. "Go on! Go get someone!"

The man groaned in irritation and sprinted back towards town.

Alison tied one end of the rope to a nearby tree and the other to her belt loop.

"Interesting." She murmured to herself as she noticed something tucked under a rock near the hole.

She pried it up and beneath it revealed a small dugout area with a rope ladder folded up inside. She looked around and her eyes caught two inconspicuous rocks that just happened to be the same distance apart as the ladder. Further investigation found that there were instinct hooks on the underside of the rocks that the top of the ladder could hook into.

Alison prepared the ladder and tested the sturdiness of the rocks before letting it fall down the cave.

"Funny. A chimera capable of making and hiding rope ladders and cave entrances." She murmured dryly.

* * *

"Ali!" Edward called down the hole only to receive silence in response. "Why didn't you stop her?" He turned to glare at Gabriel.

"What did you expect me to do?! Knock her out and drag her back into town? She wouldn't take no for an answer!" Gabriel snapped back.

Edward pinched his sinuses. This wasn't Gabriel's fault. He knew from experience how hard it was to get her to listen to anyone. She just did what she wanted.

"I'm going after her. She couldn't have gotten too far. If I hurry I can catch up to her." Edward grumbled. "Where did this rope ladder come from?" He asked. Gabriel shrugged in response. Ed sighed and positioned himself for the descent. "Are you coming?"

Gabriel gave a strained face in response. "I'm not really a fan of small spaces." He replied.

"Fine. I guess call for help if we aren't back in an hour." Ed rolled his eyes and made his way down the ladder.

When Edward finally caught up with Alison he found her on her knees, back to him, hunched over something.

"What are you doing?!" His voice startled her and she jumped a little.

"I found this!" She scrambled to her feet and presented her findings to him. "It was behind one of the boulders over here." She pointed to the rocks she'd been hunched over.

Edward picked up the item and examined it, eyes widening. A child's shoe.

"They were brought down here, Ed! Not by a chimera, but by a person!"

"We don't know that." He started.

"What kind of chimera hides rope ladder and a place to hook it? What chimera hides a secret entrance with boards and dirt?" She had a point. But they couldn't just accuse someone in the town of kidnapping children and blaming it on chimeras.

"We need to get back up to the surface. We can bring in some people to search the caves." Ed suggested. "We can't accomplish much aimlessly searching unexplored caverns."

Alison didn't want to agree, but she still followed him out of the cavern.

"Gabriel, we found something!" Alison said as she climbed out of the hole.

"So did I." He murmured.

Alison helped Edward out of the cave before turning to see what Gabriel meant. He motioned for them to follow. He took them to the other side of the rock formation and beneath a covering was what appeared to be a shallow grave. Gabriel had already partially uncovered some of it. Sticking out of the dirt was the cold lifeless hand of a child.

"I don't know many animals that bury their kills in shallow graves." Gabriel swallowed.

* * *

"Are you accusing one of us of killing those children?!" An angered local slammed his fist on a table in the town hall. The meeting was kept fairly quiet; only a few select locals were privy to the information.

"Unless you know of any animals that bury its kills instead of eating them, then yes, that's what I'm saying." Edward stared the man down menacingly.

"Cedric, the alchemist is right," Gabriel interjected. "The entrance to that cave was clearly covered up by someone. That boy's body was intentionally hidden. No animal or chimera does that."

"Have we identified the child?" Another, older, local asked.

"Yes. Daniel Schaefer." Another said solemnly. "His family will be notified shortly."

"What do you propose we do, State Alchemist?" The older local turned to Edward.

"We need to search the caverns. Alison found a child's shoe down there. If the killer isn't keeping corpses down there, if any of the children are alive, they might still be down there." Edward said.

"So we start a search party?" Gabriel asked.

"No. It needs to be kept on the down-low. Someone in this town is guilty, and we can't afford to tip them off. They might clear out the caves or worst, kill any surviving children." Alison answered.

"Right. As far as everyone in this room is concerned, nothing involving the caverned was found today." The elder local declared. "We can't hide the fact that a child's body was found, everyone already saw the retrieval of the body. But no further clues or suspicions have been made."

* * *

"Is everything all right, dear?" Leslie broke Alison from her trance as she stared into the fire.

"Huh? Oh…yeah. I'm fine." She murmured.

The teens had returned to the Adair home for the evening. Edward was busy writing down his findings in a notebook at a desk in the parlor, while Alison sat on the couch, lost in thought and staring at the dancing flames in the fireplace.

"You seemed distressed." Leslie frowned. Edward paused to watch his companion. "Are you thinking about that child you found earlier?" Leslie placed a sympathetic hand on the young woman's shoulder.

"I've had a long day and I think I'd like to turn in for the night." Alison gently smiled while avoiding the woman's touch.

Edward watched her carefully as she exited the parlor.

When Edward returned to the room, he found Alison still awake. She sat on the bed reading a book.

"You feeling okay?" He asked.

"You know, I asked Cedric before the meeting if we should wait for Leslie." She started. "He made it clear he didn't want her involved. That seems a little strange, doesn't it?"

"Did he mention why?" Edward sounded interested.

"He didn't. I asked but he just brushed me off. She's rich, a prominent member of the community is heading the efforts to rebuild the town and searching for those kids. Wouldn't you think they'd want her to be involved?"

"To be clear, what are you getting at exactly?" He sat down next to her.

"If the town leaders can't trust her, should we?" She asked.

"Maybe they just don't like her. It wouldn't be the first time someone was excluded because they'd bumped heads with someone higher up than them." He pointed out.

"True…" She bit her lip.

"But?"

"But… I don't know what it is…but something doesn't feel right." She sighed. "Maybe it's just all in my head. Maybe this chimera stuff is bringing back bad memories and it's getting to me more than I expected."

"If it'll put you at ease we can talk to Cedric tomorrow. Find out what his issue is with her." Ed suggested. "In the meantime, let's get some rest. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." He said with a wink and raising his automail arm in a flex position.

"I know you're trying to be cheesy, but it does make me feel better having you near." She smiled. She leaned over to kiss him gently before they settled in for sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

"Mr. Cedric, may I have a word?" Alison approached the older man early the next morning.

"Hmm. I suppose." He narrowed his eyes with vague annoyance. He did not trust the teens, though she supposed she couldn't blame him. Alchemy had seemed to get the town into a bit of trouble.

"Is there a particular reason you and the others didn't want Ms. Adair involved in the talks yesterday?"

"I'm not sure that is any concern of yours." He huffed.

"I understand. However, considering my friend and I are staying in her home, if there is something distrustful about her I would like to know." Alison smiled sweetly.

The older man eyed her cautiously before motioning for her to follow him inside.

"Leslie has become...troubled recently." Cedric stated. "There was always something off about her family. But there has been a distinct shift as of late."

"Her family? You mean her and her husband." Alison said.

"And their son."

"Son? She never mentioned having kids. Nor were there photos in her home." Alison spoke curiously.

"She may have removed any pictures. I imagine the memory may be too painful still. He died about a year ago. Leslie and her husband did well to keep the hows and whys very secretive." Cedric grumbled. "Not many in town were too upset about his passing. Growing up around the guy...I don't like to speak ill of the dead, but let's just say, when he moved away a lot less pets went missing."

"So you don't trust her because of her son?" Alison asked.

"To be honest, I don't trust her because the apple didn't fall far from the tree."

A chill ran down the young woman's spine. Just who exactly were they staying with?

"What about her husband? When did he pass?" She asked.

"Passed? Never heard a thing about him dying. Just no one's seen him in several months. Did she say he was dead?" Cedric asked.

"Her words were that he was 'underground.'" Alison murmured as several thoughts rushed through her head.

"Hmm. Don't know if I'd be too shocked if she killed the old bastard and let the swans and fish eat his remains." He grunted. "I got to get back to work." He paused and glanced at her before looking away. "Just watch your step around her, got it kid?"

"Thanks for the info." She nodded.

Alison had quite a lot to think about on the way back. She needed to discuss things with Edward, first of all. This woman could be dangerous.

"Hey! Hey, you!" A woman came rushing towards the young woman. "You were one of the ones that found the Schaefer boy right?"

"Um...I-"

The woman grabbed her by the shoulders in a jerking motion.

"Did you see anything out there from my little boy, Zachariah?" She pleaded as a man quickly caught up with the woman. "Maybe a piece of blue fabric? He was wearing his favorite blue coat. A-And a red hat!"

"Martha, let the young lady go." The man spoke gently to the manic woman.

The woman released her grip and mindfully took a step back.

"Please," her voice sounded so defeated. "When you're searching, keep and eye out for my boy, won't you?" The distraught mother's eyes zapped Alison like an electric shock, freezing her blood and stealing her breath.

"Of course." Alison managed to spill from her mouth. She stepped aside as the man gently took the woman and walked away with her.

A tightness seized her chest as she felt her sinuses suddenly burning.

Is that what her own mother was like when she disappeared? Is she still that way? And what about her father?

Alison bit down hard on her lip, blinked away the forming tears in her eyes and shook her head.

Now was not the time to think about that. Too many things needed her attention at the moment. She would have to unpack those feelings later. Edward could be in danger and that was far more important.

* * *

"Ill?" Leslie questioned. "Oh, dear. Should I get a doctor?"

"She insists that with a day of rest she'll be just fine tomorrow." Edward assured the older woman.

"Please notify me if she feels any worse. She could have caught something being down in that cave." Leslie says sympathetically. "I assume you'll spend the day looking after her then?"

"Yeah. Sorry we can't be much help today."

"That's quite alright. You two have been a tremendous help already. I'll be going, now." She smiled and left the blonde.

When Ed heard the front door shut he let out a sigh of relief. He returned to the room he shared with Alison. He found her peering out the window, watching to make sure Leslie was leaving.

"I don't appreciate you making me lie to old ladies for you." Ed grumbled.

"I know. But it'll be worth it." She replied as she turned to him. "What?" She caught the odd look in his eyes.

"'I just…" He hesitated. "I'm worried."

"Worried? About what?"  
"What you said before. Maybe you aren't handling all of this with the chimeras as well as you thought." He murmured. "Maybe you're making connections that aren't there because of what happened in Kujec."

"That has nothing to do with this." She caught herself hissing the words. She cleared her throat. Perhaps she was being too defensive.

"The chimeras, the swans, the child we found. I'm just saying-"

"There is _something_ going on here!" She snapped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to remain calm. Edward eyed her with clear concern.

"Maybe you should head back to Central." He said hesitantly.

"What? Do you honestly think this is all just my imagination? How do you not see it?"

"Ali, please," He pleaded softly.

"Edward, listen," She crossed the distance between them. "I don't know how to show it to you if you just plain don't see it. But there is something wrong here. Please. Just indulge me for awhile. If I'm wrong I'll head to the closest train station and take the first train back to Central. Deal?" She reined her emotions in and managed to smile softly at her love.

He searched her eyes for a brief moment, before sighing.

"Fine."

* * *

A few hours later, Edward found the young woman rifling through an old shed near the back of the garden. He was honestly surprised she'd found it; the structure was covered by overgrown plants.

"Ali, maybe you should take a break." He suggested cautiously.

"Grab that flashlight and shine it over here." She grunted, ignoring his suggestion.

He sighed and did as requested. How exactly was he supposed to curb this mental breakdown from escalating? Alison grabbed the rope handle of a large wooden crate and attempted to pull it to the side. She nearly fell back when the crate moved with greater ease than expected.

"Damn thing has wheels underneath." She noticed. The bottom trim was still low enough to look like the entire thing was seated directly on the ground. Before Edward could speak she snatched the flashlight from his hand and shown the light where the crate had been moments ago.

A strange mixture of relief and dread washed over the teens.

"I'm not crazy." Ali said affirmatively as they stared at the hidden hatch on the shed's floor. She crouched down and flung the hatch open. It revealed a hole with a ladder leading downward. A quick glance down revealed it led somewhere dimly lit below.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Edward grabbed her arm as she moved towards the entrance.

"What?" She snapped irritably.

"It could be dangerous down there. You stay here, I'll go." He told her.

Edward and Alphonse were both strong and skilled fighters and alchemists. While Edward always had part of his senses dedicated to keeping up with how Alphonse was faring in a fight, he knew it was something he had to worry very little about. But watching Ali running head first into danger was something he still couldn't get himself to get used to. She wasn't like them. She hadn't spent half her life fighting for the next lead, fighting for survival, fighting to fix mistakes. Each time she thrust herself into danger her chances of injury or death were much higher than theirs. Yet that never seemed to stop her and that terrified Edward.

"Not a chance." She freed her arm from his grasp and began to descend the ladder.

Edward considered his options. The last time he tried to keep her out of a fight, it blew up in his face spectacularly. Should he argue with her, insist she stay out of the caves? Or was the best way to protect her to stay as close to her as possible?

Edward let out an irritated growl before following her down the ladder. He could hear Alphonse now, teasing over how there could possibly be someone in existence more stubborn than the elder Elric.

"These unexplored caves look pretty explored to me." Ed murmured when he joined Ali at the bottom of the ladder. The path was well lit and easily passable. Someone had clearly come through and made the area easily accessible.

The teens searched along the path, wordlessly following the lights. They made it to a large opening, several passages splitting off from the area. In one corner were cages stacked on top of each other, covered with tarps. Edward saw how Ali warily eyed the cages before she slowly approached them. Edward was close behind her as she slowly lifted up one of the tarps. A loud, familiar honk and shudder came from the cage. Edward caught Alison as she nearly fell back, scrambling to regain her footing and get away from the cages.

"How?" She gasped out. "It can't be the same guy!"

"It's not…" Edward began putting things together that Alison's terror filled mind couldn't at the moment.

A noise, similar to a pop echoed through the cavern. Before Edward could react, it felt like he'd been stung in the back of his flesh leg by a bee. He reached to grab at the area, only for his hand to touch something smooth and cylindrical. He studied the object in his hand. A dart?

"Son of a _bitch_." Edward seethed out.

The pop rang out again before a similar dart hit Alison in the leg.

"Come on," Edward removed the dart from the brunette and pulled her back the way they came. Edward knew it was too late, but dammit he was going to try. He stumbled forward from the incredible strain of lifting his automail leg. Alison stumbled with him, her body feeling entirely too heavy.

Edward scooped his love into his arms and held her close. He would protect her until his last breath. She was limp in his arms but he was almost certain she was breathing. It was hard to tell as his senses began to distort his surroundings.

Singular steps echoed across the floor as a blurred figure approached. Edward glared at the figure with unfocused eyes before the room twisted and turned until it was nothing but darkness.

* * *

"Look what you've done." A disapproving voice pierced through the darkness.

Alison pried her eyes open and let them adjust to the dimly lit room.

"You've gotten yourself into quite a mess again, haven't you?" The owner of the voice came in to focus slowly.

"Lust? You're dead…" Alison stated.

"Am I? Then you must be, too." Lust smirked, her arms folded under her breasts. "You'll probably see the fullmetal brat soon, then."

"Why? What happened?" Panic rose in the young woman's voice.

"You stuck your nose in places it didn't belong. And now you'll both be killed for it."

"Shut up! Where is Edward?!"

"She already told you, kid." Another voice said from behind. She spun to find Envy behind her. Envy wasn't dead. Why was he here? "You're both going to die."

"This isn't real." She growled. "You're both part of some dream or hallucination."

"Is that so?" Envy asked. "Then I suppose we will leave you to wake up on your own then."

Within the blink of an eye, the sins were gone and she found herself surrounded by the white void.

"Wait! Come back!" She called out to nothing. Not again. She hated this place. It was filled with so much uncertainty and no escape. "Let me out!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Her heart pounded in her chest. She let out an angry howl and dropped to her knees, slamming her hands on the ground. Arrays and formulas swam through her mind, but nothing transmuted from her efforts. She slammed them down again and again, trying over and over until she was just slamming fists on the ground.

"Let me out of here!" She screamed again. Screwed her eyes shut tightly, screaming out her frustrations. A sudden shudder shook the void around her. She froze and looked around as she heard and felt the atmosphere around her shuddering.

"Uh oh." She murmured as the whiteness began to crumble and flake away, leaving darkness behind it. She covered her ears as a high pitched screech penetrated her ears. It didn't sound human, whatever was making the horrific noise.

The white void continued to crumble and fall into oblivion below her. Alison stumbled backwards, the assault to her senses effectively weakening her.

Something in the darkness seemed to move. Alison continued to move back, eying the movement warily. An arm extended toward her on the ground; what little remained of the white void left just enough light to see the arm and also take note that it was an unnatural color.

Several more arms appeared as the creature used its appendages to crawl towards her. A large globular mound writhed in the darkness. Faces, mouths open in silent agony twisted and writhed as it approached her. An arm extended toward her in a fluid motion, like a snake. It was like the arms of the gate, though these hands seemed more human-like.

One hand wrapped around her throat, another covering her mouth, and others grabbed her arms and legs to keep her immobilized.

Ali's screams came out muffled as one of the hands began to dip into her chest, piercing the skin and breaking through bone and tissue. The hand moved agonizing slow, and the young woman would swear that she could feel the hand in her chest. The hand clutched at something within her chest cavity before jerking back.

The air left her lungs as the hand jerked backwards, but then the creature in its entirety was gone.

She suddenly found herself restrained to the chair as she had been that night. A man approached slowly, the body of a dead swan being gripped by its broken neck swaying in his hand with each step he took.

"I'm going to make you an angel." The man spoke, but his voice sounded like it was whispered in both ears.

"...angel…" The word echoed, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"...make you an angel...I'm going to….you an angel…." The same voice multiplied and echoed around her.

Alison screwed her eyes shut and let out a blood curdling scream. Sparks surrounded her and the restraints and the chair shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Alison fell to the floor, knocking her from her drug induced slumber. She groaned and moved slowly, testing which areas were hurt. Alison picked herself up from the floor with a groan. Looking down at the splintered wood beneath her she imagined she transmuted subconsciously again. She eyed her surroundings to see she'd been locked away in part of the cavern being used as a supply room. She tried the door to find it locked, not that that would stop her.

* * *

Edward sat on the floor of the cavern wall, completely helpless.

"Don't ya think removing my leg was a bit much? You already took my arm." He grumbled at the old man hovering over a metal table.

"You can't fight or transmute without your arm. But you can't run away without your leg, either." The man replied casually.

Edward clenched his jaw tightly. If they'd done this to him, what had they done to Ali?

"What are you planning to do with us? Where is Ali?" Edward barked.

"Don't you worry. You'll see her soon enough." Leslie Adair snarled from across the room. "Oh, don't make that face!" Leslie huffed and rolled her eyes. "She isn't dead."

"No, no." The old man denied it casually. "We have plans for the two of you, and they don't involve her dying just yet."

Edward thought on that cryptic response. He brought his rational brain to the forefront to ease some anxiety. There was no evidence that more than the two Adair's were involved. So it was possible they were holding Ali somewhere without someone guarding her. If that were the case, then they didn't know about her alchemic abilities. She should be able to free herself. But what if they'd hurt her to prevent her escape? No, both the Adair's wore clean, pressed clothing. There was no evidence that they'd assaulted someone. She was unharmed, and he wouldn't allow himself to think anything else at the moment. Now he just had to hope she would have the sense to escape and come back with help, and not come look for him first.

Shit.

* * *

Alison snuck through the cavern passages as stealthily as possible. She needed to find Edward. They needed to get out of here. This was all her fault, she couldn't let anything happen to him.

She took a turn down another passage to find a door at the end. She listened closely only to be met with silence. She transmuted the lock and opened the door.

"Jesus Christ…" She stepped back at the sight before her. Children, presumably the ones missing from the town, were chained to the wall, barely clothed and nearly starved. But the part that really made her stomach roll was the angel like wings on their backs, dirtied, broken, and bound by leather straps.

Fear gripped her like a vice momentarily before it gave way to blinding rage.

She stepped inside the room and the children immediately huddled together for safety. Wordless she held her hand out. Blue sparks encircled her palm before one by one, encircling the bindings on the children and clattering to the ground.

The children looked down at their former bindings before looking at the woman before them in awe.

"The people who did this to you, they won't hurt you again." She assured them. She motioned for them to follow her out of the room. They did so without protest.

Alison stormed back to the main cavern room with fury and determination. She was going to bring this place down in rubble.

* * *

"Dear, I believe we're almost ready." The older man smiled at Leslie.

Leslie nodded and left the room without another word.

Edward listened carefully for a few minutes, hoping to maybe hear what Leslie was doing. But she was too far away.

"Johnathan Adair." Edward stated. "Right?" He was met with silence. "The last name sounded familiar." He continued. "Then when Leslie said her husband used to do private work for the military, I remembered why. I'd read some of your work before. A few years ago, when I was introduced to the Sewing-Life Alchemist. He spoke of your work often." Ed didn't try to hide the judgment and disdain from his voice.

"Yes, Shou Tucker was a very dedicated student of the art of creating new life." Johnathan spoke fondly. "He had some interesting practices, definitely some worth noting. But he was too sloppy, tried to put too much into one creature. The perfect chimera takes practice to create."

Edward was silent for a moment.

"Tucker was a monster. Do you have any idea what he did to his own daughter?" Edward growled.

The door opened and Leslie entered, holding a dead swan by its limp neck in each hand.

"You don't understand the beauty." Jonathan said. "It's creation. Creation of a new species, a better species.

"It's just another sick way to play God." Ed barked.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you?" Leslie smirked. Edward snarled in response. "Perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to cast judgement. Not after what you did to your brother."

"Speaking of which," Jonathan spoke up. "I am actually quite interested in hearing about that."

"Go to hell." The blonde spat.

Jonathan shrugged and took the birds from Leslie and laid them out on a table.

"Time to get the girl." He told his wife. She nodded in response before leaving again.

"Thomas Adair was your son, wasn't he?" Edward asked suddenly. "The serial killer from Kujec was your son."

"Yes, he was." Jonathan said with a sad smile. "He was very talented. I was very proud of him." His smile faltered. "And your little girlfriend killed him." He grumbled.

"Hold on just a minute! Ali didn't kill anyone! Thomas Adair's killer only let Ali free!" Edward shouted.

"I don't care! She is the reason he's dead now!" Jonathan argued.

Leslie burst into the room, breathing heavily.

"She's gone!" She exclaimed.

Jonathan looked at her, his voice shaking slightly. From anger or fear, Edward wasn't sure.

"What of the children?"

Leslie pursed her lips together tightly before answering.

"They're gone, too."

"DAMMIT!" Jonathan swore and slammed his fist down on the table. "You were supposed to restrain her!"

"I did! She must have had help! There is no way she would have gotten loose on her own!"

"Help?! So there could be someone else down here?" The older man shouted. "Find her!" He demanded. Leslie scurried out of the room at his order.

"You two are quickly becoming more annoying than useful." He told the blonde.

* * *

"Up that ladder, it'll take you to the surface and near town. Stay out of sight until you're in town, got it?" Alison instructed the children as they ascended the ladder."

"Aren't you coming?" One of the kids asked.

"I have to find someone." She shook her head. "He's in danger."

When the last child disappeared into the shed above the cave, she turned back to search for Edward.

She ventured back to the spot where they'd been drugged. She was going to have to fight to get Edward out of here. That is, if he was even still down there. Truth was, she didn't know where he was. For all she knew he'd been taken out of the caverns.

She placed her hand on an empty metal cage and transmuted part of it into a metal bat. She held it in her hands, swung it a couple of times, before deeming it a satisfactory melee weapon.

" _You!_ " A voice hissed from behind her. Alison turned to find Leslie Adair, standing in the opening of another cavern passage.

"Where is Edward?" Ali questioned with a scowl.

"Taking our son wasn't enough was it?" Leslie seethed.

"What?"

"Now you have to destroy our lifes' work!"

Alison starred the woman down for a few moments as she finally put pieces together.

"Kujec…" Alison whispered. "Hold on, fuck you!" She shouted. "I didn't do jack shit to your son! Besides, he killed innocent women and tried to kill me!"

"He was my son! He was brilliant!"

"He was _insane_! He admitted he was killing for notoriety!"

"He was a genius, like his father is!" Leslie screamed.

"You're just as fucking crazy." Alison murmured. "I'm only going to ask one more time. Where is Edward?"

"How did you get free?" Leslie asked with a scowl.

"For fucks sake," Alison grumbled. "My fairy godmother granted me a wish, get out of my way!" Alison stormed towards the direction Leslie had just come from.

"You brat!" Leslie lunged at her, only to fall on her face as her legs became entrapped in the morphing cavern floor. She turned around to see what had stopped her short.

"How did you do that?" She snarled at the teen. "You didn't even move!"

Alison stopped a few feet away from her and glared at the old woman.

"Your son had no idea who I am. And clearly, you don't either. You're going to regret that." And with that she stalked down the passageway.

* * *

"What is taking so long?" Jonathan grumbled. He shot a look at Edward. "Don't try anything, or I'll slit both of your throats." The old man threatened before making his way to the door.

He swung open the heavy door and was immediately met with a blunt object to the gut. Jonathan doubled over before the object came down on his back, then his thigh. He fell to the ground with a strangled howl.

Edward let out a ragged sigh of relief.

"Took you long enough." He grinned.

"Surely you weren't starting to doubt me, were you?" She said with a relaxed grin that did little to hide the thinly veiled panic in her movements. She made quick work of his restraints.

"Not even for a moment." He replied. "He put my automail over there." Ed gestured to a drawer in the back of the room.

Alison shot the old man writhing on the floor a deadly look before moving to retrieve the metal limbs. The old man should consider him lucky that Alison didn't just shove an automail fist down his throat. On second thought, Edward would probably be better suited for the task.

"This is going to hurt regardless, but it could hurt less with your help." Edward told her. Ali nodded nervously. She'd only seen his limbs reattached twice, and both times looked incredibly painful, and that had been with the proper equipment. The only thoughts she could think were the many ways she could screw it up and cause him more pain.

"Just get things lined up the best you can and when I count to three push it in, got it?" He instructed her. He put his hand on the shoulder of the automail arm. "One...two...three." He immediately stifled a sharp yelp as the arm went in its socket. "See?" He said with an unconvincing smile. "Not that bad."

They repeat the same process with his leg. Slowly, Edward stood up. His automail buckled under him, but Ali was right there to hold him up. She put his arm over her shoulders and wrapped her arm around his waist.

"Sorry I'm kind of useless without the automail." Ed mumbled as Alison helped him hobble out of the room.

They stepped over the still sobbing body of Jonathan Adair.

"You broke my femur!" He wailed.

"I'm gonna break more than that." Ali growled. She tried to turn back towards the man, but Ed's arm around her shoulders tightened and held her close.

"Let's get out of here." He said. Ed's chest felt tight and heavy. He could barely walk with his inappropriately reconnected automail, let alone protect Alison. But then again, he thought as they passed by a livid looking Leslie bound to the ground, it seemed she didn't really need his protection. He held a feeling of awe and a slight tinge of fear at her raw alchemic power.

They reached the ladder that led to the shed behind the Adair estate. It was not going to be easy to get Edward up that ladder.

"We could transmute the ground under us to rise up, right?" Ali questioned.

"If there's a chamber beneath us or on the other side of any of these walls, it could collapse." Ed pointed out.

The floor beneath them shook violently and a deafening explosion wracked their ears. Explosion after explosion went off in succession coming from multiple sides and getting closer. The teens froze as the realization hit them that it seemed probable the Adair's had rigged the place to explode at their demand. They didn't seem like the type to go down peacefully.

A rock fell and struck Ali on her head, before another struck Edward. He immediately grabbed her and covered her with his own body. The pair fell to the cavern floor as the ceiling above them began to collapse. Sparks danced around them, static shooting through the limited air in the shrinking space. Everything soon grew dark and the air became heavy.

The two stayed completely still, huddled together in darkness until the world fell silent around them.

Edward was the first to move, clutching at the woman in his arms to get some indication that she was still alive. He felt her rapid pulse against his flesh hand on her temple. He heard her short ragged breaths against his collar and he let out a sigh.

He pulled away for a moment and clapped his hands together before reaching above him to place them on the ceiling of their shelter. A clean hole cut through to the surface.

Voices could be heard approaching them before sunlight flooded the inside of the shed. A light shown directly above them.

"They're down here!" A man's voice called from above them.

* * *

The teens had barely spoken a word since being rescued by the townspeople and a few soldiers from the collapsed cave. Yet the two refused to be separated. They demanded to be treated for their injuries in the same room, and give their statements to the military officials together. Like they were afraid to let the other out of their sight.

When Edward made the connection that Leslie was the wife of a well-known alchemist whose work usually involved chimeras, he called Hughes to ask him to look into it. That was when Hughes made the connection to the Adairs and the serial killer from Kujec. However, he hadn't gotten the message to Edward in time, so he requested a faction be sent to check out the family.

Alison had never learned her assailant's name from Kujec. She didn't want to know his name. If she didn't know his name then she could pretend that it hadn't had as much effect on her as it did.

As for Edward, he'd felt stupid for not having made the connection earlier. But it wasn't like the name was rare within the country. It wasn't the most common but was by no means a unique name in Amestris.

The two were later escorted to the closest functioning hotel, which was in the town their train had arrived in. They left each other's sight for the first time that evening to shower separately. Edward preferred to be alone while he readjusted his automail. It was still painful to adjust it, and he didn't want her to have to see that again.

He later lied on his back on one of the double beds in the room while Ali showered. The room was dimly lit by a single single lamp on the table between the beds. How had the Adair's known that Ali had been Thomas Adair's last victim? Had they seen her at the hospital at some point, but not seen her transmute? Had their meeting with Leslie been a coincidence or had it somehow been planned?

It's possible he would never know. Their motives would have died with them under the rubble of the cavern.

"I'm sorry." A weak voice spoke from the bathroom door. How had he not noticed the sound of the water turning off or her exiting the bathroom?

Because he was exhausted.

"What?" He questioned. He hadn't the slightest idea as to why she was apologizing.

She stared at a spot on the floor for a while before speaking, her voice shaking.

"I was reckless. And it almost…" She took a pause and closed her eyes for a moment. "You almost died." She finally spoke.

"Hey, it's not the first time I've almost died." Apparently was not the right thing to say.

Ali bit her lip and pulled at the sleeve of her shirt.

"Yeah…" She murmured and almost immediately climbed into the opposite bed as him.

Her back was to him and he was left wondering what the right thing to say would have been. Would anything he said make things better?

As he pondered something to say, Ali suddenly sprung out of bed before practically throwing herself into his arms. She straddled his lap, sitting up on her knees, and held his head close to her chest. Edward let his eyes flutter closed, wrapped his arms around her waist, and leaned into her embrace. The scent of her skin mixed with the smell of soap found a place in his chest and relaxed there.

"I was so... _angry_ , when I found you in that room, chained to a wall." She murmured against the top of his head while her fingers gently weaved into his golden tresses.

"I knew you'd rescue me." He told her softly, while nuzzling into her soft chest.

"...I didn't." She squeaked out. "I was so afraid I'd open a door and I'd find you too late."

Edward tightened his hold around her waist.

"You'll always rescue me." His lips brushed against her chest. And he believed that, wholly. "You already have, plenty of times."

He did know well enough to know that 'you make me feel that way all the time.' Wasn't the best choice of words at that moment.

His decision paid off when she pulled away slightly and turned his face to look up at her. Ali stared into his amber eyes for a moment before rushing down to meet his lips.

She kissed him fiercely, like it could be their last time.

Then again, it could very well be the last time.


	17. Chapter 17

_ A/N: So I accidentally deleted my entire story instead of just a chapter. But everything is back up! _

_ Songs featured are "When You Were Young" by The Killers, acoustic. And "Roses" by OutKast. _

  
  


Edward wondered, for not the first time, if the woman he loved would ever be completely open to him. Well, it’s not like he was any better, he sighed. It’s not like he’d been very forthcoming with details about his more recent nightmares, the carefully hidden anxiety attacks, or the intrusive thoughts of all the ways things could have gone different in those caves. 

But this was different, he told himself as he took measured steps. It was one thing to just not talk about things. It was something else to sneak out in the middle of the night and be gone for hours, four nights out of the week. What was she up to? Where was she going? 

Questions are what had the young man on the streets of Central at midnight. on a Thursday, donning a dark hooded jacket. He would be spotted immediately if he wore his usual red jacket. 

The streets are busier than usual for this time of night, Ed mused as he kept the right distance between him and his brunette target. Though he vaguely recalled some posters on the streets about some event going on near his current path. 

For a moment Ali was washed in the light coming from a popular pub. A short while later, mere seconds after being washed in the same light, a woman came bursting through the pub door at the end of the window and calling the brunette’s name. Ed panicked and quickly ducked behind a small group of people standing outside, talking. Within moments the other woman was pulling Ali into the bar. The unknown woman was a few inches taller than Ali. She was curvy, with long dark brown hair, and she seemed very familiar with Ali. 

Ed let out an irritated sigh. He looked around before spotting a bench across and down the street from the pub. So he sat and waited, for what felt like an hour. In realization it had only been about twenty minutes. Patience hadn't always been his strong point. 

So he made his way to the pub, snuck a peek through the window to see where she was, before dipping inside and finding a vantage point within the crowd. 

She sat at a table with a group of roughly five people, though it was hard to tell as others were standing around. Edward didn’t recognize any of these people. Nor, could he recall her ever talking about them. 

There was a weird jump in his stomach that he didn’t much care for. He took a deep breath and tried to ignore it. He needed to relax. So she had a couple of friends he didn’t know about. It’s not like he tells her about every acquaintance he makes at headquarters. He was being dramatic. 

Ed raised a hand to signal the bartender and ordered a drink. Just a beer to calm his anxieties. 

The first one was gone faster than he realized. So was the second and third. At that point Edward had stopped watching Alison and moped over what a creep he felt like. But the bar was thinning out and she was facing the door. He was worried she’d see him if he left. Then how would he explain that without sounding like a creep? So when she got up to go to the restroom, he made his way towards the door. 

At least, he attempted to before the busty woman from before stepped in front of him. She stared him down with her arms crossed over her chest. 

“All right creep, you better get out of here right now!” She threatened.

“Who are you calling a creep?!” He snapped back. He couldn't leave now, or he  _ would _ look like a creep. 

“The guy who’s been staring down my friend for the past half hour! Were you following her 

earlier too?!” 

“That’s none of your business!” 

“It is if you’re some pervert targeting my friend!” 

“Who are you calling a pervert?!” He nearly shouted. He somehow caught his temper before making his presence known to every patron of the bar. “I’m her friend.” He huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms. Having to defend himself when all he was doing was making sure she was safe; ridiculous. 

The young woman eyed him skeptically for a moment.

“Edward.” He provided. Surely she’d spoken of him. 

“Ooohhh.” She said as he watched her put several things together. “ _ Edward. _ ” She replied with a grin that said she knew secrets about his love that he himself didn’t. 

"I was just trying to look after her." He grumbled. 

"Yeah, well you look like a creep doing it." She crossed her arms in front of her well endowed chest. 

"Look," he sighed, "I was about to leave. She probably wouldn't want me here anyways." He mumbled as he turned away.

"Hey, you know it's not how you think." The woman interjected. "She talks about you all the time. Girl's crazy about you. I wondered why she never brought you around, with as much as she talked about you. Now I know why." 

Ed turned back, intrigued.

"You're the Fullmetal Alchemist, right?" She asked with a smirk. "I don't know why you're so surprised that I recognize you. You're kind of a big deal among other young alchemists. Most of us have seen your picture in the papers at least a couple of times."

Ed was speechless. It never crossed his mind that anyone was paying that close attention. He knew he was usually easy to spot at Headquarters because he was the youngest person on the entire grounds. And if one term always came up when adults described the Fullmetal Alchemist it was that he was 'just some kid.' He would have never imagined that people close to his own age were paying attention. 

"My friends over there and I are all amateur alchemists ourselves. A couple of us are studying the science at the University. She was saving you from those fanboys over there." She chuckled. "I'm Analise. But most people just call me Ana." She extended her hand. "It’s nice to finally meet you, Ed." She smiled warmly as he shook her hand. 

The crowd in the bar seemed to be coming back to life as a few more already inebriated patrons entered. Edward's face twitched when one of the men hollered loudly across the room to someone. 

"It's quieter at our table, if you want to join us." Ana offered.

"Thanks, but I should- " He began.

A flurry of sound came from the piano at the back of the bar. 

It caught the attention of the two, as well as a few others. Ali fingers glided along some of the keys, playing certain notes as she tested the sound. Easily satisfied, she grabbed a nearby stool and pulled it up.

"I don't know what it is with her and that damn piano." Ana groaned 

"She does this often?" Edward asked.

Edward didn't even vaguely recognize the tune she was playing, so he assumed it was one from her world.

And he couldn't stop wondering just how often was she meeting up with this group he had no clue of. And how often did it involve her drinking and playing an instrument in front of a crowd of people? She'd always seemed to feel comfortable being herself around him. She didn't seem to care about being embarrassed around him. But she had never played an instrument in front of him during the entire time he knew her. He remembered her saying she knew how to play, but never made any other mention of it. 

"You sit there, in your heartache…" Ali's voice projected over the room. She’d never sang in front of him either. Edwads felt something squeeze tightly in his chest as her voice moved through him. It was warm and smooth. Her tone had a depth to it he hadn't expected, that held so much emotion.

"Waiting on some beautiful boy" Ali played. 

"To save you from your old ways. You play forgiveness. Watch it now, here he comes."

"He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman. Like you imagined when you were young." She held the last note with a little treble in her voice.

"Hey," Ana pulls his attention back. "If you want, I won't tell her you were here. But only if you won't tell her I shared anything with you, got it?"

Ed nodded in agreement. 

"She has me worried. She's been back in the city for a few weeks now and I swear nearly every time I see her she's never sober. She seems upset about something but won't say what. I've tried asking her but she keeps changing the subject." Ana explained.

"On the back of a hurricane, that started spinning, when you were young." 

Edward was trying his best to listen to Ana while still soaking in every note Ali played and every word she sang.

"And sometimes you close your eyes," Ali looked completely entranced in her own performance. "And see the place where you used to live. When you were young." The tempo built and Ali's fingers moved deftly and quickly over the keys before the tempo suddenly dropped. 

"They say the devil's water, it ain't so sweet." Edward felt something swell in his chest when he heard a heavy bit of her accent from her home sink into her voice. "You don't have to drink right now. But you can dip your feet in. Every once and a…. little while." She started up another instrument solo.

"Booooooo!" A loud heckle cut through her voice. Heads turned to one of the obnoxious patrons that had entered earlier. "Play something fun, sweetheart!" He yelled across the room at her. Meanwhile, the man's friends around him, as well as the girl hanging on his arm, giggled amongst themselves. 

Edward clenched his jaw and watched the man in annoyance. So what if she sees him? He'd go over there and knock the smirk right of the guy's face.

Ali stared at the man for only a couple of silent seconds. Though it felt much longer in the silence. 

"Sure thing." Ali grinned. "What's your name, dude?" She asked incredibly casually.

"Benjamin!" The man yelled out and laughed with his friends. 

"Okay, Benji, I got just the song for you." She smiled and started up a new, more upbeat tune.

"Benja-mine, Benja-mine! Most the girls would say he's mighty fine! Mighty fine!" The sounds she pulled from the piano seemed to twirl upward. "Oh-oh, I know you like to think yo' shit don't stank, but lean a 'lil bit closer, see roses really smell like poo-poo-poo!" She sang loudly. 

"Dammit, she's going to start a fight." Ana grumbled. 

"What did you just say?!" Benjamin shouted.

"Oh, Benja-mine!" She sang his name loudly and locked eyes with him. "He's the reason for the word 'bitch'." She drew the last word out and continued to keep playing while maintaining eye contact. "Bitch." She called him directly. 

Benjamin jumped out of his chair and stalked his way to her. A few people stood up and tried to stop the man from making it to the woman, but he ignored them all.

Meanwhile, Ali had stepped away from the piano and faced her aggressor. Edward and Ana were already speedily making their way to Ali's defence.

"Come on!" She taunted, arms opened before being pulled off the stage by Ana.

"What is wrong with you?!" Ana scolded. "You're not just drunk." Ana narrowed her eyes at the other brunette. "What else did you have?"

"Jeb and Hal shared some of their tea with me." Alison shrugged. Ana hung her head and groaned. She immediately spun around when she heard more shouting behind her and was quickly reminded of the angry man making his way to the two women. 

Some people tried to calm the man down but he continued to yell before Edward stepped in the man's way. 

Ana brought Ali's attention to their conversation.

"Not his 'magic tea', right?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah, that one!" Ali grinned. The young woman didn't seem the least bit concerned about the approaching threat.

"They told you what that tea  _ does _ , right?" She asked carefully. If they hadn't, she would skin them both. 

"Duh," Alison rolled her eyes. "I wanted to try it."

The crowd surrounding the volatile man suddenly gasped before they fell silent. 

Edward had punched the man hard enough that he stumbled to the ground. 

"I said, don't come any closer to her." He growled as he dug in his pocket and pulled out his watch. "You better scram, unless you want to go up against the Fullmetal Alchemist."

The crowd began to murmur as the subdued man got to his feet and stomped towards the exit, his friends behind him. The murmurs soon returned to a buzz of multiple conversations. 

"Hey, Ed!" Ali smiled, seemingly unfazed about what had taken place, and not at all shocked to see her blonde companion in a bar they'd never been to together. 

As he approached her, he told himself to remain calm. He told himself not to raise his voice, not to accuse her of anything, and to be ready to listen to her.

"What the  _ hell _ are you doing, starting bar fights out here at 2 A.M.?" Was what came out. "What was your plan, huh? Let the guy knock you around a little bit?" He hadn't realized he had grabbed her wrist until she yanked it away. 

"You of all people should know I can handle myself." Ali crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. For some reason that just made Edward angrier.

"Hey, Ed, let me talk to you for a second." Ana interrupted the two. "Alison, maybe you should head home for the night." Ana's tone was caring and motherly. "I gotta ask the Fullmetal Alchemist a couple questions. Why don't you go say bye to the others real fast? I think we're going to head home too."

Alison didn't seem to care enough to argue and returned to the table she'd been at previously. 

  
  
  
  


Ana had informed Edward about the tea Alison had drank. It was made from a rare mushroom and could cause mild to severe hallucinations of all varieties. He was informed that he should just try to get her to bed and she should be fine in the morning. The brewers of tea assured Edward, before he could threaten them, that the effects were temporary and non-lethal, but that she probably should have supervision until the effects wore off. 

The couple stalked down the sidewalk, hand in hand. Edward practically pulled the woman down the path. All he could think about was getting her back to the dorms and keeping her safe.

"Eeeeddd…" Ali groaned and slowed down her steps. "I wanna sit down." She whined.

"We're just a couple of blocks from the-" He started before she plopped down on the sidewalk against the glass window of a store front. She let her hand still dangle from his. 

He held back the curses and pushed back his frustration. He took a deep breath and sat down next to her. 

"I'm dizzy." She mumbled softly. 

Edward watched her for a few moments before deciding to ask her something. Ana had told him that Ali had said she'd drank the tea willingly. Why was she going out so much and allowing herself to be so vulnerable?

"Why did you want to drink the tea?" Ed asked.

"I dunno. I heard about stuff like that in my world. It sounded like it could be a neat thing to try. Figured, why not?" She shrugged. Her accent was getting thicker with every word she said. 

"Ali," Edward shifted his body to face her. Naturally, she turned to him and gazed into his golden honey eyes. "If you leave yourself so vulnerable the homunculi might find out and use it to hurt you." He explained. 

"The Promised Day is less than a year away." Her answer was stated so factually, it took Edward by surprise and confused him. Before he could ask for her to elaborate, she flopped over and landed the back of her head in his lap. 

"Hey, hey mama, said the way you move. Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove." She sang softly and proceeded to imitate a instrumental tune while miming the action of playing a guitar with her hands.

"Let's go to the park." She suggested suddenly and sat up.

"It’s nearly 3 A.M." Ed pointed out. She only shrugged in response, like the time didn't matter. 

"What are you kids doing out this late?" A gruff voice brought Ed's attention to a young MP standing a few feet from them. 

Edward stood up and dug out his pocket watch.

The MP apologized for the intrusion. While Edward insisted it was okay, the MP still felt the need to apologize profusely. All Edward wanted the guy to do was leave. When he had finally felt he'd apologized enough the man left. 

Edward turned around to find his brunette companion had disappeared. Edward cursed loudly before taking a jogging pace to the park.

  
  
  
  
  


Patrick Rigby sat alone on a rickety park bench behind his dorm hall. If memory served, it had been stolen from a nearby park. A stupid prank, really. He just wanted to step away from the party being hosted in his building and get some fresh air. He pulled a marijuana joint out of an inner breast pocket of his jacket. 

"You're smoking weed?!" An incredulous voice says behind him. "I am  _ so _ telling Mom!"

Patrick nearly fell off the bench.

Parick stared at his little sister like she was a ghost. 

Something the Rigby siblings had in common was their tendency to self medicate. Patrick's cocktail this evening had been half a tab of LSD with a little marijuana, and the ever present nicotine. 

Patrick watched his sister wordlessly move to sit by his side.

"I'm hallucinating." Patrick said with a disappointed sigh. He wasn't high enough to believe his sister, who had been missing for over a year, suddenly showed up next to him looking just the way she did the last time he saw her.

"Yeah, I was just thinkin' the same thing." Alison shrugged. Now that he looked more closely, she didn't look just how she did the last time he saw her. She was leaner. She had a new look in her eyes that he had never seen before. "What'd you take? Or was there more than just weed in that joint?" His sister asked. 

"Acid." He answered simply and relit his joint. So he was hallucinating his probably dead sister. There were probably some unresolved issues to be looked at there, but for now it was comforting seeing her face and hearing her voice again. 

"Magic Shroom tea." She laughed with her signature grin. She and their mother's father shared a look that everyone in the family referred to as the 'shit eatin' grin.'

A long, yet comfortable silence fell between them. 

"How…" Alison started hesitantly. "How is everyone?" She asked. "Are mom and dad okay?"

"They're better." He answered. "I mean, things aren't back to normal. I don't think they'll ever be. But for a while everyday was just worse than the last one. Now it seems like each day is a little easier." 

"I know I made the right choice." Alison spoke softly with a crack in her voice. "But I still wish I could see you again."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Patrick hid his confusion with a chuckle. "And I'm going to need this hallucination to be a bit more optimistic. We could still see each other again. This organization mom and dad are working with, they just recovered a woman who had been missing for fifteen years! They could always find you!" He rambled.

"No, Pat." She said quietly. 

Patrick watched his sister scrutinizingly close. He waited for a 'gotcha' or some kind of nightmarish and terrifying creature to appear and for his little trip to take a sharp turn. But she just sat beside him and stared ahead, eyes fixed on the horizon. 

"Why? He asked softly, his voice trembled a little as his chest tightened. "Where did you go? Why can't you come back?" 

"It’s too long a story. Even the abridged version would take all night." His sister shook her head. "But I want you to know, I'm okay. I'm alive."

"I don't understand. How can you be alive but I can never see you again?" Patrick questioned.

"It’s hard to explain. Best I can explain it is I am existing just like you are, but not on the same  _ plane _ of existence. And the connection to our separate planes has been severed."

Patrick looked ahead for a long moment. 

"Next you'll tell me we're only able to communicate on a different consciousness because of our altered state of mind and sibling connection." Patrick forced a laugh.

"Jesus christ," Alison groaned. "How much acid are you on?" She shoved him with a grin. It was odd that Patrick could actually feel his sister's touch.

  
  
  


Alison admitted she liked the idea of, by some weird 4th dimension bullshit that she maybe was communicating with her brother. Even if what she was experiencing was designed by her own psyche to give her some kind of hope that she could bring peace to her family.

"There's a guy," She said suddenly. Patrick snapped his head towards her and gave her a bewildered look.

"What in the Stockholm Syndrome did you just say?" 

"Stop, that's not it." She swore. "He helped me when I first came here. He's kept me safe." She told him. "I'm happy when I'm with him." She admitted.

"Then what the fuck are you doing tripping shrooms in the middle of the night?" Her brother asked with a raised brow.

"Okay, point taken." She grumbled. "But it's more complicated than that!"

"Of course it is." Patrick rolled his eyes. "Because it's  _ always _ complicated with you!" He scoffed. "Things only become complicated because  _ you _ make things that way! This is San Antonio all over again!"

" _ Excuse me? _ How exactly did  _ I  _ make San Antonio complicated?" She snapped back. "Besides, you have no idea what I've been through!"

"How could I, dumbass? You won't tell me, remember? It's too  _ complicated _ , it's just  _ such _ a long story!"

"You're such a dick!" Alison shouted at her brother. 

She glared at him for a long several moments before relaxing. 

"I still miss you, though." She admitted.

"Yeah," Patrick sighed. "I miss you, too. Pain in the ass, and everything."

The siblings sat in silence for a long time, staring ahead. And when Alison turned back to see her brother, he was gone. And all that was next to her was an empty space that made her chest hurt.

"Bye, Patrick." She whispered.

  
  
  
  


Edward stood about ten feet behind the park bench and watched Ali have a conversation with no one. The perfect silence of the early morning made the one-sided conversation easy to hear.

He heard her call the invisible conversationalist, Patrick. Wasn't her brother's name Patrick? He thought to himself. She didn't talk much about her family these days. 

Edward closed his eyes and sat down on the grass behind the bench. She was hallucinating a conversation with her brother. Hopefully this wouldn't go on for too long and he can coax her back to the dorms. Edward thought back on the events of the night and had so many questions he wanted answers to. Maybe if he could help her inner turmoil she could help with his. Isn't that how the love thing was supposed to work? 

"Ed." Edward snapped his head up at the firm call of his name. Shit, he'd fallen asleep. His eyes darted frantically around before settling on Ali. "I'm sorry I've been a pain in the ass lately." She spoke evenly and stared directly at him. 

"It’s fine." His voice was gruff. "Let's just go back to the dorms." Dawn would be breaking soon.

"Can we watch the sunrise?" She asked with those big brown doe eyes. 

"Okay." He sighed. It was harder than it looked under normal circumstances to say no to that look. He was definitely too tired to do it then. He got to his feet with a few groans. He'd become stiff sitting there for so long. 

He sunk down onto the bench seat next to Ali. 

"You can ask me." Ali said suddenly.

"Ask what?" He yawned.

"Whatever it is you want to ask me." She said. Ed watched her for a moment and shook his head.

"Not when you're like this." He said. 

"But this is the only way I  _ can _ answer you." She insisted. "What if I lose my nerve to be honest when I'm not like this anymore?" She asked softly. 

Edward thought about what she had just said. 

"If you can't answer me honestly, while sober, I don't want to know the answer." His tone was gentle yet firm.

"I think I'm ready to head back, now." Ali said after a few moments of silence. 

  
  
  


The midday sun lit the entire bedroom, making it hard to ignore and hide under the blankets. 

Edward was exhausted after his long night. He could replay the events of the night and evaluate their importance later. At the moment, he just wanted another hour of sleep. The brunette in his arms was also fast asleep.

When Edward woke up again, he just stayed there with his eyes closed for a few moments. He could tell by her breathing that she was awake. Edward swallowed to clear his throat and prepared to ask a question. 

"How did you make San Antonio complicated?" 

He earned a light tap to the gut. 

"I didn't make shit complicated. Patrick just doesn't understand the importance of a vacation itinerary." She murmured. "I thought you were asleep for that part."

"I was in and out." He smiled against her hair. "How do you feel?"

"Tired. My head hurts." She groaned into his shirt. She played with the material between her fingers and breathing in the scent of him. "The last few months have been kinda fucked up and I haven't been handling it well." She finally admitted. "I'm not the only kid around here just teeming with trauma waiting to manifest into unhealthy coping mechanisms. So I just tried to brush it off. Just another day that ends in 'Y', right? Seeming pretty on par with most days the past year."

Edward tenderly ran his fingers through her hair, softly comforting her.

"Some nights I can't sleep so I go for a walk. I usually end up at a bar because if I get a little drunk I can sleep and I don't dream as much. I think less about my family when I'm drunk. And how much they're hurting. I can't shake the guilt. Then I get thinking about Father and all his bullshit and I can't make my own mind be quiet."

"Who were those people at the bar?" Ed asked his genuine question.

"Ana and I met at the public library doing some alchemy research. We shared a few interesting ideas on alchemy and medical practices. She invited me out to drinks with her older brothers who were also alchemy enthusiasts. Jeb and Hal were the ones that gave me the tea. But I'd asked for it. They're big into horticultural alchemy. I thought maybe something psychedelic might put some things into perspective. Or something. I'm not really sure what I was expecting." She sighed. "I guess I just wanted to feel something other than anxious."

"How many bar fights have you gotten involved in?" Ed asked her.

"Last night makes two." She murmured into his chest. So it was a little childish to call that dude at the bar a bitch. Sure, she could've gotten hurt. But for just a bit she wasn't thinking about those kids chained up, horrible experiments done to them. She didn't think about the Promised Day. 

"I got you beat." He chuckled. "I got into five. The last one gave me a black eye that I couldn't hide from Al. He got upset and made me feel bad so I stopped looking for trouble." 

"I can't even say I'm surprised." She sighed lightly. Edward wasn't really known for backing down. "When was that?"

Ed stilled for a moment and seemed to contemplate his answer.

"Maybe a couple weeks before Al got his body back." He finally replied.

That recently, huh? The only reason he hadn't backtracked to some old habits after the Adair incident was because of his promise to Alphonse. He'd be lying if he said the idea of stalking about town, waiting for someone to just say the correct wrong thing so he could throw a fist or two, didn't sound enticing. Just the adrenaline rush of a fight helped chase away the anxieties for a few hours. And it seemed Ali had the same idea. 

"If you're looking for an ass to kick, how about you try mine from now on?" He suggested. "We'll start sparring. Let out some stress, hone some skills, and get a good workout in."

"I think that could work out." Ali replied as she burrowed her face into her lover's hard chest. 

"Tomorrow." He added and held her closer. It wasn't often they just got to lie together like that. 

"What is it?" Ali finally asks. As much as he tried to hide it, his back muscles were tight and she could hear the anxious pounding of his heart. "You can ask whatever you want." She added. 

"Do you regret it?" He finally let the words leave his mouth. "Not going back?"

"No." She said simply. She knew that wouldn't be enough and thought about her next words carefully. "I would make the same choice every time, given the chance. Even if Al's life hadn't been in danger." She admitted.

"I'm never going to fit in here." She started again after a moment of silence. She'd noticed it fairly soon after becoming familiar with this world. She looked different. It wasn't completely obvious like a third eye or anything like that. But her the bone structure of her face was just different enough, stemming from an evolution and combination of genetics that would never be experienced the same in this world. Her hair and eye color were just different enough to make a some take notice. It gave her an almost exotic look, not unlike Edward and Alphonse whose shared genetics that were over 300 years old and from an extinct race of people. It drew people to them. It made them stand out. And standing out wasn't exactly something the young woman was used to. 

"I look different." She continued. "I sound different. I've gotten a lot better at hiding my accent but I can't seem to ever hide it completely. And people notice. Sometimes I think about what effect I may have on the world's evolutionary chain by being here. What if I have children here? Half of their genetics would be completely alien to this world." 

"A quarter of their genes would be Xerxian and they've been gone for over 300 years." Ed murmured. Ali tried to hide her chuckle when she felt him tense, after he realized he admitted to assuming he'd be the father of those hypothetical children.

"I wonder what they'd look like." Ali mused and heard Ed's heart pounding harder against his chest. 

Edward pulled away just enough to lean down and capture her lips. She pressed herself closer against his hard body as the kiss grew heated. 

Occasionally, there were these small glimmers of something else to look forward to. Something past the Promised Day; a future. Something bordering on normalcy and happiness. They were almost afraid to allow themselves too many moments like that. Wouldn't that just make the disappointment that much more devastating when they didn't make it out of this alive? But it was also these crucial moments where they allowed themselves to dream of a future that kept her going. She couldn't give up when there was still this hope of a life with this man. 

She didn't regret her choice to stay in this world. She knew in her heart she would choose Edward every chance she could. And she would show that to him every chance she got, and she would fight for the opportunity to show him for the rest of their lives, no matter how short or long. 


End file.
